We are living in a time of profound media-related changes. Through our smartphones and other technical devices, we as individuals are connected with each other on a more or less continual basis. The way we use different media significantly shapes our public connections, socialisation, learning processes and life courses. The groups, communities and other collectivities we live in are constructed via the use of various kinds of media: older ones like newspapers and television (that become digital), but also more recent ones like social media platforms and other online services. Organisations – including the organisations of media production and journalism – more and more become dependent on and shaped by various media. In all, our media environment is changing fundamentally and subsequently the ways we act as individuals, collectivities and organisations. We are living in times of deep mediatization.

The fundamental idea of our research programme Transforming Communications is to study individuals, collectivities and organisations in this deeply mediatized environment of today. To do so, we take a cross-media perspective. Our starting point is the assumption that it is not one single new medium that makes a difference but people’s practices oriented towards an entanglement of various media that drives media-related changes of our present times. Emerging ‘new’ media technologies like social media platforms (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) are in close relationship with ‘old’ media such as newspapers or television, which in turn change as they become digitalised. In such a situation, the transformation we are confronted with is not a simple convergence of media into one single device (as expected at the beginning of digitalisation), but a differentiation of various media that are ever more connected with each other, omnipresent, and driven by a rapid pace of innovation and datafication (the representation of social life into computerised data).

About the authors

Andreas Hepp
Andreas Hepp is Professor for Media and Communication Studies with the special areas Media Culture and Communication Theory at the ZeMKI, Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research.

“Communicative Figurations” research network (www.communicative-figurations.org)

Stefanie Averbeck-Lietz, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Miriam Bartsch, IMK, Universität Hamburg
Matthias Bixler, IPMZ, Universität Zürich
Rieke Böhling, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Andreas Breiter, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen / Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen
Michael Brüggemann, IJK, Universtiät Hamburg
Thomas Friemel, IPMZ, Universität Zürich
Uwe Hasebrink, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung / Universität Hamburg
Andreas Hepp, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Sascha Hölig, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Sina Marie Gogolok, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Hannah Grünenthal, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Juliane Jarke, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen / Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen
Rudolf Kammerl, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Juliane Klein, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Michaela Kramer, FK EW, Universität Hamburg
Leif Kramp, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Gertraud Koch, IfVK, Universität Hamburg
Sebastian Kubitschko, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Claudia Lampert, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Christine Lohmeier, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Wiebke Loosen, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Inge Marszolek, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen (†)
Lisa Merten, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Markus Oermann, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Marcel Rechlitz, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Julius Reimer, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Arne Hendrik Ruhe, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen / Institut für Informationsmanagement Bremen
Uwe Schimank, SOCIUM, Universität Bremen
Wolfgang Schulz, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung / Universität Hamburg
Piet Simon, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Monika Sowinska, Universität Bremen
Lisa Spanka, ZeMKI, Universität Bremen
Sebastian Topp, IfVK, Universität Hamburg
Rebecca Venema, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano
Ute Volkmann, SOCIUM, Universität Bremen
Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung
Stefanie Walter, IJK, Universtiät Hamburg