Media Evolution and Cultural Change: Discussing Medium Theory and Mediatization

• Datum: 3. September 2011
• Street: Linzer Straße 4
• Location: Zentrum für Medien-, Kommunikations- und Informationsforschung (ZeMKI)

International workshop

On 3 September 2011, the DFG Priority Programme “Mediatized Worlds”, headed by Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krotz, together with the ZeMKI, the scientific journal Communications – the European Journal of Communication Research and the Temporary Working Group “Mediatization” of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), organized an international workshop focusing on the transformation of our world through changes in the media. The internationally renowned American communication scientist Joshua Meyrowitz, known for his book The Television Society, who coined the term “media theory”, was also present.

Media theory examines the significance of the media as technical and cultural influences for the coexistence of people, for culture and society. One of the fathers of media theory, Marshall McLuhan, put this in a nutshell with the phrase “The medium is the message”, which has made him famous in Germany and beyond. This means that the influence of media is not simply about questions of media content, which traditional communication science examines with the help of the concept of media impact, but about how media as such change our communication, our world view and our thinking. In this sense, the establishment of television, the Internet and cell phones is also interrelated with changes in culture and society.

Empirically, such relationships are being investigated in the Mediatized Worlds priority programme funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and coordinated at the University of Bremen. However, the point of reference here is not media theory, but the concept of mediatization, which is used to describe the development of the media as a change in communication and thus as a change in the communicative construction of the world. The focus here is not only on technology, but also on complex theories such as cultural studies, the sociology of knowledge and semiotics.

At the international workshop Media Evolution and Cultural Change, these two theories were to be juxtaposed and placed in relation to each other. Scholars from Denmark, Germany and the USA, including Joshua Meyrowitz (University of New Hampshire), Lynn Schofield Clark (University of Denver) and Stig Hjarvard (Københavns Universitet), met to discuss the relationship between media change and cultural change in presentations and a discussion panel. Andreas Hepp and Friedrich Krotz from the University of Bremen and the ZeMKI, respectively, also appeared as speakers with a thematic introduction.

Contact:
University of Bremen
ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research
Iren Schulz
Linzer Str. 4
28359 Bremen, Germany
Phone: +49-421-218-67629
E-Mail: iren.schulz@uni-bremen.de