Rationale
Societal trends - Media impinge upon almost all aspects of contemporary life, and they are constitutive of key financial, social and cultural processes. To study media is therefore an important pathway for understanding fundamental processes in society and in understanding the human condition. As is only too evident, media have undergone profound changes in the past two decades which can – as is done in this FL - be characterized in terms of digitization, globalization and commodification. Given the central role of media in our daily lives, the important, general question presents itself as to these “new” media – and the implications of technological changes for “old” media - affect our lives.
Policy trends - Most policies focus on ICT literacy (computer literacy, information literacy) defined as a transparent tool for virtual collaboration, information processing and learning in the work place or in education (e-learning). Media literacy is a broader term than just ICT literacy, embracing the shaping, sharing, (critical) evaluation and use of print as well as audiovisual and digital media. On national as well as European levels, divides remain between definitions of ICT literacy versus media literacy. All policy documents agree that more systematic and trans-border research is needed in order to facilitate effective policy-making but views as to the appropriate aims and outcomes of such research differ amongst public and private stakeholders.
Scientific trends - Media studies have developed at most European universities, but in rather disparate ways – from sub-sections within a mother discipline to independent, interdisciplinary departments both in commercial as well as academic traditions. Even though media studies have developed strong international research societies, examples of European research collaboration are still few.
Thematic organisation of the Forward Look
In the current Forward Look, four different avenues or themes have been identified as deserving an in-depth “look forward”:
- Political engagement in an age of mediatization: enablers and constraints for democratic developments
- Creative economy or creative culture? Shaping and sharing of media content as a specifically economic or as a wider social resource
- Digital divides and their relation to class, gender, generation, ethnicity and region
- Identity-formation: from Facebook networks to institutional forms of cultural heritage.
Methodological approach
Each of the four themes listed above will be taken up in a dedicated thematic workshop in which the research questions within the themes will be further reframed and refined. Following the thematic workshops, a synthesis workshop will be held in order to take stock and facilitate the preparation of the final report. The outcome of the synthesis workshop will be an advanced draft of the final report. This version will be discussed with a larger representation of academics and stakeholders in a final conference before publication.
Intended outcomes
The main output of the FL will be the final report proposing a new research agenda for the scientific community and raising awareness at the science policy level. It will include an executive summary of the outcomes of the project. This final report and executive summary will be widely disseminated within the research community at scholarly events as well as within science policy circles.
Full details can be found in the proposal.
