Media studies

Media Studies is the scientific study of the media, especially the mass media, and public communication. Media Studies is grounded in the language and humanities dealing with the media in literature, theater, art and music science. Subject of research are mainly print media ( newspapers and magazines ), radio, television and online media. Many media scholars also include film studies to their discipline.

The main work areas of media studies are analyzing the media, history and theory. In contrast to social science communication science, in which the focus is often on the interactions between mass media and society ( reception), are in the media science questions about the program design, organization and technology in the foreground.

History and disciplines

The beginnings of media studies go back to scientific research in the field of newspaper and journal publication. In 1916 taught Karl Books in Leipzig Institute for journalism in. The first professor was Erich Everth. A wider media studies has established itself until the end of the 1970s as an independent discipline. It is located in the intersection area of language, literature, theater and cultural studies, sociology, social work, psychology, political science, economics, law, pedagogy, and computer science.

In Germany, in the history of media studies two streams observed: on the one hand the alignment as the humanities and cultural studies, on the other hand, as a social science or based on the social science communication science.

Media Studies as Humanities and Cultural Studies

The first major aspect of Media Studies is based in the humanities and cultural sciences such as theater arts, and literature and widens significantly since the 1990s, from. In this orientation, science has now emerged mainly in Germany and established.

Establishing a clear beginning of media studies is difficult because media studies theories and questions have other humanities and social science disciplines has always been accompanied - as already discussed, the ancient philosophy differences between speech and writing, two of the oldest media. These perspectives can be subsequently referred to as media studies, without the concept or even the institutionalization of the discipline at that time already existed today.

In the 1960s, especially the German turned to other media, as in the course of a reorientation now also practice-oriented texts were put into focus. The institutionalization of Media Studies ran a roundabout way, to a large extent on the creation of film and television science institutes.

The humanities form of media studies came from the 1970s and 1980s from the text-based humanities German and theater arts as a counterpart to more empirically -working, social science journalism and communication science.

As one of the first publications on this new direction is towards the, edited by Helmut Kreuzer band literature - media studies, who summarized the presentations of the Düsseldorf Germanist Day 1976. In the preface to the band is still spoken of " risky dilettantism ."

Especially at the beginning of the 1980s it was recognized that the key function of social media would require an extension of the canon of literary texts need to publications in the popular press, radio plays and eventually television dramas. The role of the text transfers from one medium to another, such as the literary adaptation were problematized. Then there was the knowledge of conditionality and dependency of each literary work of his medium, so the drama of the stage presentation, the radio play from the radio, the novel from the book. Partial found a paradigm shift from the literature rather than the media.

1984, the reference journal was Media Studies: Reviews founded. German language and literature and journalism and communication science approached methodically against one another, about the symposium " Empirical Methods of Literature " in 1981 in Siegen, were where invited by the literary scholars also journalism and communication scientists or vice versa at the Symposium "Towards the History of Communication " in 1987 at the Institute for Media and communication Studies at the University of Vienna.

In 1988 the factory views of a future Media Studies (edited by Rainer Bohn, Eggo Müller and Rainer Ruppert ) based on the 1969 book views of a future German by Jürgen Kolbe, the idea had already been expressed in the media science research within the German in the.

Today's media studies is characterized by a plurality of approaches, methods, and objects. Sometimes, this perspective of media studies, referred to as distinct from social science media studies, as well as " media culture science".

Media studies as a social science

Has the media science in the tradition of other social sciences such as communication, sociology and economics will focus primarily on the mass media, their political, social, economic and cultural role and impact that they have with the creation and distribution of media content to the audience. Partial Also humanities -oriented media studies institutes lean on the social science communication science, or operate in some instances, empirical methods as they are actually typical for this science.

An important social scientific question within the Media Studies is about the importance of the media for the production of gender identities. Starting from the central function, taking the media for the construction of affiliations to communities, it is investigated the gender dimensions of inclusion and exclusion. At the heart of gender-sensitive media studies is the question of gender- hierarchical structures, which lead to unequal participation opportunities for men and women to the symbolic resources of the Company.

Key topics

The three main areas of work in media studies, media analysis, media history and theory. This division has already emerged in the 1960s and " has largely been consensus among media scholars of the time, so there was no need to systematic reasoning " ( Knut Hickethier ).

Today, the boundaries and the research is complemented by additional aspects. The sub- disciplines that overlap in many cases with other subjects, ranging from the media anthropology, media education and media philosophy up to the media law.

Public Forums

For the scientific exchange and as a public forum, the International Association for Media and History ( IAMHIST ) was founded in 1977, which publishes the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. Aligned internationally is is the 1959 founded the Society for Cinema and Media Studies ( SCMS ). In German-speaking countries, there is the Society for Media Studies ( GfM ), the German Society for Journalism and Communication Studies ( DGPuK ) and the study group broadcasting and history ( Strug ). The Adolf Grimme Institute continuously examines the German television programs on the quality of programs and awards appropriate annual awards, each of which intense media studies sightings and discussions are based. The also annual Mainz days of television criticism of the ZDF are one of the other forums that people from practice and media scholars to a public review, inventory and perspectives - event gathering. The media München host an annual internationally oriented media conference. - In France, the Société pour l' histoire des médias ( SPHM ) for research into the history of media involved.

Study

The study of media studies (depending on the scientific orientation usually in combination with the related communication, theater or literature ) is possible at various European universities. Because of the partially artistic- creative direction there is next university offers also courses at colleges or universities Artistic. The allocation of places is done because of the high attractiveness of the subject based on a local competition ( numerus clausus ), often aptitude and selection tests are also conducted. Particular emphasis is placed on very good knowledge of German, good knowledge of English and sometimes other foreign languages ​​. In part, media studies courses serve to training for professional practice, in part they have a purely scientific claim.