Media psychology

Media psychology is a branch of psychology,. Engaged in research with the description, explanation and prediction of experience and behavior that is associated with media or which takes place due to or during the use of media

In the beginnings of media psychology defined Peter Winter -Spurk, who is considered one of the founders of this research, " to give a description and explanation of that behavior of individuals, which is influenced by the media " media psychology as a psychological sub-discipline with the task (winter -Spurk 1989: 18). Media Effects is available here as tasks in the foreground, media selection and reception, however, are not addressed in this definition. In addition, the behavior is referred to as primary psychological dimension. Later " also the actions, thoughts and feelings related to the use of media in the focus on media psychology research " was ( Front & Trepte, 2000: 707) moved and " the media use the previous and the accompanying cognitions, emotions and actions ( ibid investigated. ).

Subject

The media- psychological research can be divided based on two approaches: First, based on the psychological triad emotion, cognition and behavior, and secondly on the basis of the forms of media use: selection, reception, effects and media- mediated communication. Emotions here describe the feeling and the emotion, cognition thinking and behavior refers to any observable reaction. The media selection refers to everything that is happening before the actual media reception. The media reception includes the process of media use in the strict sense. It initially involves only the passive aspects of media use. The media effect includes the impact of media use on the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the reception following. The media- mediated communication involves the active communication and therefore complements the concept of reception in regard to many media offerings. When a message body is rezipiert eg on the Internet, this is a primarily passive use form. However, if it is subsequently with other face-to -face or computer- mediated communication about it, so go active and passive forms of use go hand in hand.

History

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, they began to deal with media- psychological problems and theoretical approaches. However, the concept of media psychology had not yet been coined at that time, why not publications developed under the concept of media psychology. The goal of most of these early studies was to understand the content of the media and dealing with them. For this purpose, the relationship between the use of media and various individual variables that are related, for example, socio-demographics, personality or learning behavior of users, investigated. The history of the media themselves can also be found in the history of media psychology. 1912, the first silent movie was shown in 1913 and began to do research on the topic of film in Germany and Anglo - America. 1916, the first psychological study was performed for the film by Hugo Münsterberg: The photoplay - A psychological study. It underlines the importance of the then new medium for the society and the individual should be illuminated. During this time, was particularly interested in the educational possibilities of the film and its effect on young people. In 1950, the film research was replaced by the television research. Their initial studies (1950 - 1970) employed the one with the individual characteristics of users. In addition, the TV viewing habits were studied by young people and we examined how the television for teaching and learning could be used. However, contradicted the initial results to the assumptions of researchers: By using the TV, the social activities did not reduce and found no association between the use of television and formal education. Even negative impact on young people could not be detected. However, it only began in the 1970s to deal intensively with the topic, which significantly contributed to the contours of the subject media psychology in Germany.

Another major research field radio research is mentioned, which produced some of the theoretical foundations of today's media psychology. As the most important representatives of early radio research Gordon W. Allport apply, Hadley Cantril, Hazel Gaudet, Herta Herzog and Paul F. Lazarsfeld. Similar to the TV research, there were also focussed on three main issues: One examined the socio- demographic characteristics of the recipients and their reception experience and dealt with the associated question of the bonuses of radio programs and their evaluation by the listener. There was also great interest in the research methods. Furthermore, we discussed the importance of radio in times of war, especially with the radio in Germany and with German radio broadcasts.

The print media has turned less attention to the evolving media research, which is related to the fact that by this time newspaper scientific institutions were established. The Media Psychology, however, dealt with the reading of books and studied especially the reading motivation and the effect of reading. The late 1970s to the 1990s the media Psychological research could experience a boom, the highlight of which was the late 1980s. The media- psychological research of this time can be based on two dimensions determine: the classic questions of media psychology dealing with the research of the 1970s, this expanded and updated it, has been studied in particular television.

The current issues of media psychology have mainly new media such as interactive television, the Internet or other computer-based media for research. Funding media psychological issues in Germany by the German Research Foundation ( DFG) and the State Media Authorities. The fact that the media psychology is now established as an institution, due mainly to media psychological periodicals. In Germany it is today, especially the Journal of Media Psychology that appears when Hogrefe -Verlag, in English since 2008 as the Journal of Media Psychology. The U.S. counterpart is the Media Psychology. The founding of the Section for Media Psychology was a more formal consequence of the increasing establishment of the discipline at the content level. Today, in the 21st century, the media- psychological research of the 1990s, will continue. A focus today is on the examination of the reception experience and behavior. A second focus is on computer- mediated communication (CMC ) and human- computer interaction. The third focus is also related to computer-based media, this is about learning and socialization with new media.

Research fields

Institute for Media Psychology

• University of Hohenheim: Department of Media Psychology at the Institute of Communication Sciences
• Julius -Maximilians -Universität Würzburg: Workspace Media Psychology at the Institute for Human- Computer Media
• University of Koblenz- Landau Institute for Communication Psychology, Media Education and Speech Science, IKMS
• University of Tübingen: Applied Cognitive Psychology and Media Psychology
• Leibniz Association: Knowledge Media
• Chemnitz University of Technology: Institute for Media Research
• Ilmenau University of Technology: Department of Media and Communication Studies
• Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster: Institute of Communication Science
• Free University of Berlin: Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies
• University of Zurich: Institute for Journalism and Communication Studies
• Zurich University of Applied Sciences: Research focus Psychosocial Development and Media
• Saarland University: work unit media psychology and organizational psychology
• University of Cologne: Institute for Social Psychology and Media Psychology
• University of Duisburg -Essen: Institute of Social Psychology: Media and Communication
• Friedrich -Schiller- University Jena Institute of Communication Science Jena: Department of Communication Psychology
• University of the Arts Berlin: Subject Communication and Media Research