This article sets out to provide a conceptual contribution to theoretical and empirical work on the level of media repertoires. We will first discuss theoretical approaches which allow for an explanation of media repertoires and relate them to the most prominent approaches to selective audience behavior. Secondly, in order to empirically analyze media repertoires we propose a combination of secondary analyses of existing surveys on media use and qualitative studies on the internal 'architecture' of these repertoires and their practical meaning in the user's everyday life. These proposals for secondary analyses are illustrated by two examples based on different data sets and referring to different levels of analysis.
In a time of deep mediatization, cross-media approaches to investigating media practices are becoming increasingly relevant. In this respect, we have to consider cross-media from at least two different perspectives. The first perspective considers the ‘individual’ whose cross-media use can be characterized as a particular ‘media repertoire’. The second refers to ‘social domains’ (collectivities and organizations) that can be analysed as communicative figurations characterized by a particular ‘media ensemble’. We propose to interlace both perspectives to help clarify the conceptual and empirical relationship between media use by individuals, on the one hand, and as part of the figuration of a social domain, on the other. From the perspective of the individual, media repertoires are composed of media-related communicative practices that individuals use to relate themselves to the figurations that they are involved in. From the perspective of these figurations, media ensembles are characterized by the media-related communicative practices of the actors involved in them. We argue that a methodological triangulation of media diaries, (group) interviews and sorting techniques is a productive way forward to qualitatively investigate both these perspectives.
Investigating the influence of changing media and communications on society is a long-term aim of research. With the perspective of media effects, this was grasped to be the influence of a certain media content-media coverage, political campaigns, television shows and so on-on audiences. From the point of view of medium theories, this influence is related to a single kind of mediumbooks, television, mobile phones and so on-which shape our communication and perception, and by so doing influence our society's characteristics. Both perspectives have a long and rich tradition, and exploring them has resulted in many, partly path-breaking, contributions-far too many to discuss here.
How do children and adolescents integrate the so-called `new' media, i.e computer-based media and services, as a part of their media environment? Will they displace other media? This question is analysed for three countries, Flanders, Germany and Sweden. The focus of the comparative analyses is to identify general trends in how young people deal with new media offers, rather than to describe and explain intercultural differences. First we report general findings on media availability and use of young people in the three countries. Television undoubtedly still occupies a dominant position in the lives of children and teenagers in all the countries involved. With regard to PC and television console games, availability and amount of use differ considerably, with Swedish young people being ahead of those in Flanders and Germany. Second, correlational and factor analyses lead to remarkably similar factor structures for the three factors, indicating that these correlations represent more general trends in how young people combine different media. Third, we define different patterns of media use in clustering the respondents according to their amount of use for different media. Finally, the results are discussed with regard to societal processes like individualization, globalization and economization.
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