Growing up in a changing media environment

In the focus: media and family relationships

Getting a grip on the impact of mediatisation on family life  

Three different methods were used to appropriately examine research questions of whether there are temporal changes in media use, how it develops with life course transitions, shapes socialization processes of social domains and how children handle newly emerging challenges. At first, qualitative interviews with children were held. Children were asked to comment on their personal media repertoire, practices and topics which come along with the media they use. The interviews also included a picture-laying technique, assisting to get children talking and classifying the different media according to their personal relevance. Following the children’s interviews, parents were also qualitatively interviewed. They reflected on their children’s and families' media practices and the results from their children’s interviews. The third method asked the families to reenact typical media use situations, which were documented photographically.

No two media repertoires are alike - neither are the media-related discussions in families

As expected, the study’s results show how media repertoires of children differed within the cohorts, among other reasons, due to the children’s age. Media-related interests also changed in the course of age and time. In using different types of media, children automatically gain new and vital skills for their (future) media usage. The increased and differentiated usage is based on parents' increased understanding of their children’s practices, characterised by more freedom in self-determined use.

Media-related negotiation processes were dominantly found in proximity-distance relations and power relations. Proximity with regard to media use can be established through mutual media interests and practices. At the same time, different interests through self-determined media use can actively lead to an expression of the urge to distance from others and hence to distancing relations. 

Finally, the most common regulations of parents were detected. These can be categorised into time-related rules, setting content restrictions, and regulating access to specific devices and content. These regulations were subject to conflicts and discussions within the social construct family.

Connected Kids highlights the importance of taking a differentiated look at the abovementioned issues. The results show how early media-based negotiation processes start and impressively characterize interpersonal relationships. In addition, the economic dimensions of children’s media use should not be disregarded, as children serve as new commercial targets for companies. Thus, it is even more essential to mediate and teach children skills handling the wide range of media-related practices and opportunities.

If you want to know more about the study, you can find a brief summary of the book publication in English here.