Media usage research

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The use of media research is a branch of communication and media studies and analyzes the use of mass media ( media usage ) by their audience.

In media usage research, a distinction is made between functional, individual-procedural and structural perspectives. From the functional perspective, media preferences and media usage patterns are traced back to individual needs. The functional perspective has dominated and shaped media use research for many years in the form of the uses and gratifications approach . In the individual-process perspective, media use episodes are examined as processes in their situational contexts. From the structural perspective, the social framework and the media system to explain media diffusion and audience structures come into focus.

Another approach is the perspective of action-oriented reception research, which understands media reception as an active contribution to the construction and reconstruction of meaning. This means that according to this approach, the recipient actively decides to listen, read and / or watch. This is based on needs . If it comes to usage situations with several recipients, decision-making and game-theoretical explanations are undertaken in the research.

Depending on the approach, the description, explanation or forecast of media usage are in the foreground.

Academic media usage research

The media usage research carried out at universities is based on an active audience, which selects the media content according to its needs ( uses and gratifications approach ).

Economically oriented media usage research

Media research , carried out by media companies themselves , sees the audience as passive and influenceable. It is sold like a kind of commodity by the media company in the form of media carrier contact opportunities to the advertising industry . Media research is therefore primarily aimed at product and advertising optimization.

The largest market research institute is the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) , which collects audience ratings for television.

literature

  • Hanko Bommert , Christel Dirksmeier & Ralf Kleyböcker: Differential media reception . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-8258-4897-3 .
  • Heinz Bonfadelli, Thomas N. Friemel: Media usage research (= 2.2 chapter) . In: Dies .: Media Effects Research ( UTB ; 3451). 5th edition UKV, Konstanz 2015, ISBN 978-3-8252-4247-3 .
  • Uwe Hasebrink: Use research . In: Günter Bentele , Hans-Bernd Brosius , Otfried Jarren (Eds.): Public communication. Handbook of Communication and Media Studies . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, pp. 101-127, ISBN 3-531-13532-5 (A good introduction to the subject area).
  • Michael Meyen : Media Use. Media research, media functions, usage patterns (UTB; 2621). 2nd revised edition UVK Medien, Konstanz 2004, ISBN 3-8252-2621-2 .
  • Wolfgang Schweiger: Theories of media use. An introduction . VS, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-14827-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Koch, Christian Schäfer-Hock, Arne Freya Zillich: Conflict, coordination, compromise? The potential of game theory to explain the choice of viewing in shared domestic television use. In: Communications. 41, 2016, doi : 10.1515 / commun-2016-0021 .