How to research cross-media practices? Investigating media repertoires and media ensembles. (August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hasebrink, Uwe; Hepp, Andreas
• Other Names: Mortensen Mette guest-editor.; Lomborg Stine guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Convergence. Volume 23:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 362
• Page End: 377
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Subjects: Cross-media research -- figuration -- media ensemble -- media practices -- media repertoire -- mediatization -- triangulation; Mass media -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; Telecommunication -- Periodicals; Mass media and technology -- Periodicals; 621.3897
• DOI: 10.1177/1354856517700384
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-8565

Abstract

In a time of deep mediatization, cross-media approaches to investigating media practices are becoming increasingly relevant. In this respect, we have to consider cross-media from at least two different perspectives. The first perspective considers the 'individual' whose cross-media use can be characterized as a particular 'media repertoire'. The second refers to 'social domains' (collectivities and organizations) that can be analysed as communicative figurations characterized by a particular 'media ensemble'. We propose to interlace both perspectives to help clarify the conceptual and empirical relationship between media use by individuals, on the one hand, and as part of the figuration of a social domain, on the other. From the perspective of the individual, media repertoires are composed of media-related communicative practices that individuals use to relate themselves to the figurations that they are involved in. From the perspective of these figurations, media ensembles are characterized by the media-related communicative practices of the actors involved in them. We argue that a methodological triangulation of media diaries, (group) interviews and sorting techniques is a productive way forward to qualitatively investigate both these perspectives.