SPP 1505 - Subproject: The Mediatized Home II: A Qualitative Panel Study About the Change of Domestic Communication Cultures

Basic data for this project

Description

The project aims at looking at the change of domestic communication cultures in a process-oriented manner. It is based on the understanding that the digital mediatization of the home is becoming more and more dynamic because of the internet and other media. The integration of digital and mobile media is causing a change in the communication practices of the members of the household, a change in the meaning of established media, and is also intensifying the medial connections of the domestic home with external spheres. At the heart of the project is a qualitative panel study that explores the development of the mediatized home from the media user's point of view. Thus, a sample of 25 households was examined in 2008 and again in 2011/12. In 2013/2014 a third phase of data collection will take place so that the long-term observation of the mediatization of the households can continue, resulting in the study covering a period of six years. The sample is determined according to socio-demographic criteria such as age, educational background, and gender. For this reason, the panel enables the examination of questions of social differences and other questions of social inequality. As heterosexual couples are analysed and interviewed simultaneously, the project evaluates gender constellations and also discourses on gender. Overall, the sample represents the adult German middle class - a group which is rarely analysed in media reception research. The evaluation of the media use of middle class persons in the context of their occupation, family life, domestic work, and routines leads to a realistic assessment of the changing role of the media. The overall objectives of the project are to observe how the participation in digital media use develops over time and how factors of inequality may be caused, how gender relations are negotiated in the context of domestic media use, as well as how media use may create fragmentation or community in households. Theoretically, the project is based on the theory of mediatization and also on the theory of domestication, which both relate to the Cultural Studies.