Media sociology
As a special sociology, media sociology deals with social conditions and consequences in the relationship between sociality and media communication .
history
In university research and teaching, media sociology has not yet been institutionalized in Germany. Due to the low differentiation of the subject, problems arise in differentiating between subjects such as media studies , communication studies or media philosophy .
Media sociology has therefore not developed an independent sociological concept of media in the past and has mostly concentrated on mass media in its research perspective. For example, Michael Jäckel writes in the introduction to the textbook "Media Sociology" published in 2005 that the program of media sociology consists of: "(...) to look for structural features that can be ascribed to the availability of offers distributed via the mass media." (P. 10). This appeared plausible as long as in modern society, above all, the organization and realization of decision-making processes was hardly imaginable for public opinion other than through the mass media. The sociologist Max Weber had already established the social importance of the press in 1910 in his suggestion on "the survey on the sociology of the newspaper industry". Towards the end of the 20th century, the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, among others, pointed out the social significance of mass media in general and especially for the production and reproduction of the public (1996: 183ff.).
The study by the social philosopher Jürgen Habermas on the " structural change of the public " (1962, new edition 1990) was also influential for the concentration of sociology on mass media and the importance of the public .
Extended term media
An expanded concept of media is based on studies of communication media such as language or (hand) writing and symbolically generalized communication media (SDKM) such as money, love, truth, which enable and shape sociality.
The sociologist Udo Thiedeke has proposed that media should not be examined in the context of a special media sociology, but rather as communication media and thus as an object of general sociology. Based on the basic sociological question proposed by Niklas Luhmann , how social order is possible, Thiedeke asks how sociality - and in relation to communication media, such as sociality under the conditions of media communication - is possible. Rather, this sociological media term should encompass all communication media that are oriented towards the structuring of meaning on the basis of technical and social expectations related to media. According to Thiedeke, the sociology of the media deals with technical and social media communication structures such as language, radio, computers, the Internet, etc., which shape the meaning of sociality in a specific media way.
Thiedeke developed this definition: Communication media are "socio-technical operating structural mechanisms of meaning" (2012: 145) In view of the changed media communication through computers / networks and the Internet, media differentiate into old media and new media . New media or cybernetic interaction media should be media of attention that, in contrast to the old media, no longer focus on the communication of communication, but on the individual design and controllability of the communication.
Old and new media
According to Thiedeke, media as mechanisms for structuring meaning are fundamentally differentiated into:
- Differentiation media (symbolically specifying communication such as characters)
- Attention media (symbolically constructive communication such as mass media and the Internet)
- Understanding media (symbolic generalizing communication such as money and love)
Due to their socio-technical operation and symbolic construction of meaning (by attaching expectations to the respective form of communication), attention media are able to focus attention on the communication of media communication and are further differentiated into:
- Individual media
- Mass media
- Cybernetic interaction media
Due to their socio-technical operation, individual media react to the problem of direct addressing of messages. Their specific forms of communication are language, writing, gestures, etc. The horizon of meaning of the collective memory arises . Communication is very limited due to the sense dimensions (factual, spatial, temporal and social).
Because of its socio-technical operation, mass media react to the problem of indirectly addressing messages to potentially everyone. Their forms of communication include radio, television, newspapers, etc. This is where the public's horizon of meaning emerges. The mass media are more extensive due to their communication possibilities through the dimensions of meaning.
Because of their socio-technical operation, cybernetic interaction media open messages for the interactive design and control of individuals, groups, known / unknown and artificial / natural communication participants. The horizon of meaning of cyberspace arises. With the interaction media it is now possible to communicate on a massive scale individually. They are primarily based on the computer, through which messages of media communication can be transformed into an interactive interface.
The traditional media like radio and language are by no means obsolete or obsolete. New media or new media communication are characterized above all by the fact that they combine the communication possibilities of the old media and are linked to new expectations. Such expectations are normality expectations for a virtualization of the currently defined reality. Virtualization should mean here, a process that shifts the currently determined reality into the possible. Sets of socio-technical expectations develop that shape the meaningful possibilities of communication.
literature
- Stavros Arabatzis: ›Be connected! Mediate! Be in relation! ‹. About the abbreviated media models of the new sociology. In: Peter Engelmann together with Michael Franz and Daniel Weidner (eds.): Issue 2/2020, 66th volume, No. 2. Passagen Verlag, 2020, ISSN 0043-2199
- Jürgen Habermas: Structural Change in the Public. Research on a category of the public . Luchterhand 1962 (reprinted 1990 Suhrkamp)
- Dagmar Hoffmann, Rainer Winter (ed.): Media sociology. Science and Study Guide . Nomos 2017, ISBN 978-3-8329-7991-1
- Michael Jäckel (Ed.): Media Sociology. Basic questions and fields of research . VS Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-531-14483-9
- Niklas Luhmann: The reality of the mass media . West German Publishing House 1996
- Klaus Neumann-Braun, Stefan Müller-Doohm (eds.): Media and communication sociology. An introduction to central terms and theories . Weinheim u. a. 2000, ISBN 3-7799-1461-1
- Udo Thiedeke: Sociology of the communication media. Media - Forms - Expectations . Springer VS 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-18533-0
- Max Weber: Preliminary report on a proposed survey on the sociology of the newspaper industry . In: Horst Pöttker (Ed.): The public as a social mandate. Social science classics on journalism and media. Konstanz 2001, pp. 316-325 (1910)