The Social Use of Media

Description

This collection of essays provides an overview of research on the social uses of media. Drawing on long traditions in both cultural studies and the social sciences, it brings together competing research approaches usually discussed separately. The topics include up-to-date research on activity and interactivity, media use as a social and cultural practice, and participation in a cultural, political and technological sense. This book explores three general areas of current scholarly study of the social aspects of media use. First, the introduction of interactive and so-called social media has had repercussions for the definition of media use, reception and even our perception of media effects. Second, the recognition that media constitute social practice, which utilizes media for its own goals, has been highly influential in communication research. Third, media provide many opportunities for participation in cultural and political issues. Yet media also shape participation in certain – and sometimes constraining – ways.

Introduction – Helena Bilandzic, Geoff Roy Patriarche and Paul J. Traudt

 

PART I: AUDIENCE ACTIVITY AND INTERACTIVITY 

 

Chapter 1: Mode of Action Perspective to Engagements with Social Media: Articulating Activities on the Public Platforms of Wikipedia and YouTube – Seija Ridell

 

Chapter 2: At the Crossroads of Hermeneutic Philosophy and Reception Studies: Understanding Patterns of Cross-Media Consumption – Tereza Pavlícková

 

Chapter 3: Cultivated Performances: What Cultivation Analysis Says about Media, Binge Drinking and Gender – Andy Ruddock

 

Chapter 4: Motivations to Participate in an Online Violent Gaming Community: Uses and Gratifi cations in an Ethnographic Approach – María T. Soto-Sanfiel

 

PART II: MEDIA USE AS SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PRACTICE 

 

Chapter 5: Imagined Communities of Television Viewers: Reception Research on National and Ethnic Minority Audiences – Alexander Dhoest

 

Chapter 6: Exploring Media Ethnography: Pop Songs, Text Messages and Lessons in a British School – Caroline Dover

 

Chapter 7: Film Audiences in Perspective: The Social Practices of Cinema-Going – Philippe Meers and Daniel Biltereyst

 

Chapter 8: Talking Recipients: An Integrative Model of Socio-Emotional Meta-Appraisal (SEMA) in Conversations about Media Content – Katrin Döveling and Denise Sommer

 

Chapter 9: Parasocial Relationships: Current Directions in Theory and Method – David Giles

 

PART III: CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL PARTICIPATION 

 

Chapter 10: From Semiotic Resistance to Civic Agency: Viewing Citizenship through the Lens of Reception Research 1973–2010 – Kim Christian Schrøder

 

Chapter 11: For and against Participation: A Hermeneutical Approach to Participation in the Media – Lars Nyre and Brian O’Neill

 

Chapter 12: Using the Domestication Approach for the Analysis of Diff usion and Participation Processes of New Media – Corinna Peil and Jutta Röser

 

Chapter 13: Creating, Sharing, Interacting: Fandom in the Age of Digital Convergence and Globalized Television – Mélanie Bourdaa and Seok-Kyeong Hong-Mercier

 

Conclusion: Exciting Moments in Audience Research: Past, Present and Future – Sonia Livingstone

Sujets

• Digital Media
• Public Policy
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Droit et juridique
• Gaming
• Local history
• General officer
• Cultural studies
• Television
• Media studies
• LAW
• General
• Internet

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 05 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841507446
• Langue: English

Extrait

European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
This series consists of books arising from the intellectual work of ECREA members. Books address themes relevant to the ECREA’s interests; make a major contribution to the theory, research, practice and/or policy literature; are European in scope; and represent a diversity of perspectives. Book proposals are refereed.
Series Editors
Nico Carpentier
François Heinderyckx
Series Advisory Board
Denis McQuail
Robert Picard
Jan Servaes
The aims of the ECREA are

a) To provide a forum where researchers and others involved in communication and information research can meet and exchange information and documentation about their work. Its disciplinary focus will include media, (tele)communications and informatics research, including relevant approaches of human and social sciences;
b) To encourage the development of research and systematic study, especially on subjects and areas where such work is not well developed;
c) To stimulate academic and intellectual interest in media and communication research, and to promote communication and cooperation between members of the Association;
d) To co-ordinate the circulation of information on communications research in Europe, with a view to establishing a database of ongoing research;
e) To encourage, support and, where possible, publish the work of young researchers in Europe;
f) To take into account the desirability of different languages and cultures in Europe;
g) To develop links with relevant national and international communication organizations and with professional communication researchers working for commercial organizations and regulatory institutions, both public and private;
h) To promote the interests of communication research within and among the Member States of the Council of Europe and the European Union;
i) To collect and disseminate information concerning the professional position of communication researchers in the European region; and
j) To develop, improve and promote communication and media education.

First published in the UK in 2012 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2012 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2012 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover designer: TK
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Production manager: Tim Mitchell
Typesetting: Planman Technologies
ISBN 978-1-84150-512-1
eISBN 978-1-84150-744-6
ECREA Series ISSN: 1753-0342
Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK
Contents
Introduction
Helena Bilandzic, Geoffroy Patriarche and Paul J. Traudt
Part I: Audience Activity and Interactivity
Chapter 1: Mode of Action Perspective to Engagements with Social Media: Articulating Activities on the Public Platforms of Wikipedia and YouTube
Seija Ridell
Chapter 2: At the Crossroads of Hermeneutic Philosophy and Reception Studies: Understanding Patterns of Cross-Media Consumption
Tereza Pavlícˇková
Chapter 3: Cultivated Performances: What Cultivation Analysis Says about Media, Binge Drinking and Gender
Andy Ruddock
Chapter 4: Motivations to Participate in an Online Violent Gaming Community: Uses and Gratifications in an Ethnographic Approach
María T. Soto-Sanfiel
Part II: Media Use as Social and Cultural Practice
Chapter 5: Imagined Communities of Television Viewers: Reception Research on National and Ethnic Minority Audiences
Alexander Dhoest
Chapter 6: Exploring Media Ethnography: Pop Songs, Text Messages and Lessons in a British School
Caroline Dover
Chapter 7: Film Audiences in Perspective: The Social Practices of Cinema-Going
Philippe Meers and Daniel Biltereyst
Chapter 8: Talking Recipients: An Integrative Model of Socio-Emotional Meta-Appraisal (SEMA) in Conversations about Media Content
Katrin Döveling and Denise Sommer
Chapter 9: Parasocial Relationships: Current Directions in Theory and Method
David Giles
Part III: Cultural, Political and Technological Participation
Chapter 10: From Semiotic Resistance to Civic Agency: Viewing Citizenship through the Lens of Reception Research 1973–2010
Kim Christian Schrøder
Chapter 11: For and against Participation: A Hermeneutical Approach to Participation in the Media
Lars Nyre and Brian O’Neill
Chapter 12: Using the Domestication Approach for the Analysis of Diffusion and Participation Processes of New Media
Corinna Peil and Jutta Röser
Chapter 13: Creating, Sharing, Interacting: Fandom in the Age of Digital Convergence and Globalized Television
Mélanie Bourdaa and Seok-Kyeong Hong-Mercier
Conclusion: Exciting Moments in Audience Research: Past, Present and Future
Sonia Livingstone
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Helena Bilandzic, Geoffroy Patriarche and Paul J. Traudt
Early communication research neglected the idea that media audiences are social beings. The concept of the masses, predominant at the time, assumed that ‘the members of the mass are spatially separated from one another and in that sense, at least, cannot interact with one another or exchange experience’ and that ‘the mass has no definite leadership and has a very loose organization if any at all’ (Freidson 1953: 313). Sociologists who criticized these assumptions emphasized the role of group relationships in media selection and influence processes, pointing out ‘the social nature of the experience of the members of the audience’ (Freidson 1953: 316). Seminal work by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) demonstrated that media effects are filtered through opinion leaders and group relationships, thus calling into question the idea that audiences lack leadership and organization. The role of interpersonal communication in audience research became increasingly important, not only in terms of media effects studies but also in the examination of information diffusion in society and the negotiation of meaning given to current events (e.g. Deutschman and Danielson 1960; Hill and Bonjean 1964; Rogers and Shoemaker 1971). Agenda setting theory, for example, assumes that media coverage about current events has the power to influence topics in interpersonal communication (McLeod, Becker and Byrnes 1974). The innate fear of being socially isolated when expressing minority opinions fuels a ‘spiral of silence’ and therefore influences, if not directly, public opinion (Noelle-Neumann 1974). To have a topic of conversation, at work or with friends, turned out to be an important motivator for people to use media, along with other social gratifications (McQuail, Blumler and Brown 1972).
Research exploring the role of media in family life provides many examples of the social use of the media. Lull’s pioneering ethnographic work delineates four areas of ‘relational uses’ of television – when ‘audience members use television to create practical social arrangements’ (Lull 1980: 202). First, television serves as communication facilitation : audience members obtain common ground for conversations through television topics and examples. Second, affiliation and avoidance describes strategies where television is used to share time with family members or, conversely, to avoid situations and interactions with them. Third, social learning relates how people acquire information from television but also are socialized by the televised social world and its norms and values. Finally, audience members demonstrate and establish competence and dominance by using television examples that underline one’s perspective or role and undermine others’ position.
Almost three decades after Lull’s (1980) article, audience researchers have emphasized the transition ‘from family television to bedroom culture’ (Livingstone 2007) as a result of both the transformations of the media and communication environment and the changing conditions of family life. What is at stake in evolving domestic media uses is the family’s and household’s identity, culture and (power) relationships, as well as the frontiers between the private and public spheres. Similarly, research on the uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by young people shows that social uses are at work within peer groups: for instance, mobile phones are used to stay connected with friends, to participate in collective activities, to affirm one’s group membership, to gain a status within the group, to reaffirm privileged relationships or to present oneself as a member of a (youth, ethnic or other) subculture (e.g. Caron and Caronia 2007; see also Dover in this volume).
The sociality of media audiences is not only observable at the micro-level of family and peer groups but also at the macro-level of ‘imagined audiences’ (Dayan 1992, 1998). Drawing on the notion of ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 1983; also see Dhoest in this volume), Dayan claims that the dispersion of television viewers across space (and time) does not mean that there is no shared social experience. Viewers should rather be seen as negotiating their participation in imagined audiences, which are shaped by the content of the programme as well as by public discourses about the programme or the genre in question (see also Hartmann and Dohle (2005), who suggest the notion of ‘co-audiences’). ‘Media events’ (such as royal weddings or funerals) have been described as collective and participatory experiences, where the sociality of the audience is vigorous and widespread, combining the micro-dimension of domestic media-related conversations and the macro-dimension of public engagement in national or/and transnational communities (Dayan and Katz 1994).
Social uses are integral parts of community media in a broad se