ifeworlds as Contexts for Media Literacy. Media Habitus and Meaning Making in Mediated Biographies.

Author(s):

Christian Swertz(presenting / submitting)Alexander Schmoelz(presenting)Wolfgang Ruge Alexxandro Barberi

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures

Format:

Paper

Session Information

06 SES 02, Media Environments: Discourses and contexts

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

15:15-16:45

Room:

K6.15

Chair:

Theo Hug

Contribution

The imperative of constant change and attempts to standardise education systems are occasionally stated as contemporary relevant factors for education that require research (Göhlich et. al 2017). Constant change and standardisation are adversary tendencies. Standardisation prohibits change, and change renders standards useless. This raises the question how these apparently contradictory tendencies can be understood and considered in media education in order to design the relation of theory and practice (Swertz & Mildner 2015) while teaching media literacy.

In our talk we argue that standardisation is not only characteristic for modern societies (Baumann 2004) but also an implicit bias of communication brought forth by digital media. While Innis (1951) has shown that standardisation and centralisation as governmental tendencies can be explained by the poor capability of digital media to communicate knowledge in time and the excellent capability of digital media to communicate knowledge in space, he did not consider the individual. But from an educational perspective, it’s the individual level that matters. Thus we consider the meaning that individual actors create for media while using media as the central problem for media education and teaching media literacy.

Among the different theories on media education (Ruge 2015) we consider the dialectic of the structural – relational approach (Meder 2004) and the understanding of lifeworlds as mediaworlds (Baacke et al. 1990) as an appropriate framework to understand the meaning that individuals give digital media in their lifeworlds. Thus we are interested in how individuals make meaning of media in their lifeworlds.

Method

As one method to research the meaning that individuals give digital media in their lifeworlds media biographical interviews are suggested. Biographical interviews allow for a consideration of the interactive perspective on the relation between media and the individual (Aufenanger 2006). Since we assume a dialectical relation between media and the individual and are specifically interested in the meaning that is given to media by individuals in their lifeworld, biographical interviews are appropriate to approach this relation. To research the meaning that individuals give their use of media in their relation with media, we conducted media biographical interviews with 11 students and the research team. The later interviews were used to self-reflect our perspectives as researchers. The interviews have been designed and conducted as narrative interviews (Schütze 1983). In these interviews students created narrations about the meaning they gave to media in the course of their life. We reconstructed the schemata that were expressed in the narrations with the circular interpretation method that has been developed by Baacke (1990, 1993).

Expected Outcomes

Results show that the researched individuals create individual meanings of media education and thus an individual Media Habitus (Swertz 2004, Swertz et. al 2014) in their lifeworlds, while these meanings reflect the meaning of media in social and economic contexts and can thus be understood by the praxeological media theory of Bourdieau (Barberi 2013a, 2013b). While the tendencies to individualisation confirm the results of earlier studies (Rogge 1985), the media and subsequently the meaning that is given to media by individuals in their lifeworlds has changed. It can be concluded that individuals reflect the meaning of media in society and actively shape the meaning of media in their lifeworlds at the same time. This dialectic of individual and society reflects the dialectic of individual change and governmental standardisation. The contradiction between both tendencies is closed by individuals in their individual acts. To consider the interests of individuals in media education the performativity of the individual (Trültzsch-Wijnen 2016) and their power to create changes creatively (Schmölz 2016) with co-determined actions and co-created reframings of meaning (Schmölz 2017) should be considered when teaching media literacy.

References

Aufenanger, S. (2006): Medienbiographische Forschung. In: Krüger, H.-H.; Marotzki, W. (Hg.): Handbuch erziehungswissenschaftliche Biografieforschung. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 515-525. Baacke. D. (1993): Biografie: Soziale handlung, Teststruktur und Geschichten über Identität. Zur Diskussion in der sozialwissenschaftlichen und pädagogischen Biographieforschungt sowie ien Beitrag zu ihrer Weiterführung. In: ders. & Schulze. T.: Aus Geschichten lernen. Zur Einübung pädagogischen Verstehens, 41-86. Baacke, D.; Sander, U. & Vollbrecht, R. (1990): Lebenswelten sind Medienwelten. Opladen: Leske+Budrich. Barberi, A. (2013a): Von Medien, Übertragungen und Automaten. Pierre Bourdieus Bildungssoziologie als praxeologische Medientheorie. Teil 1. In: Medienimpulse 4/2013. Barberi, A. (2013b): Von Fotografien, Televisionen und symbolischen Maschinen. Pierre Bourdieus Bildungssoziologie als praxeologische Medientheorie. Teil 2. Iin: Medienimpulse 1/2014. Göhlich, M; Novotny, P., Revsbaek, L. Shröer, A.; Weber, S.; Yi, B.; Augustsson. G. & Riva, M. (2017): ECER 2017: Reforming Education and the Imperative of Constant Change: Ambivalent roles of policy and educational research. [: http://www.eera-ecer.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Pictures/ECER_Logos_and_Pictures/ECER_2017/ECER_2017_Call_for_Proposals_fin.pdf Baumann, Z. (2004): Wasted Lives: Modernity and Its Outcasts. Cambridge:, Polity Press. Innis, H. A. (1951): The Bias of Communication.: Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Meder, N. (2004): Der Sprachspieler. 2. erw. Aufl., Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann. Rogge, J.-U. (1985): Die sehen bald nur noch fern. Medienbiografische Betrachtungen. In: medien praktisch, 4, 13-18. Ruge, W. B. (2015): Disziplinäre Trennungen und schulische Verengungen in der Medienpädagogik. In: Schiefner-Rohs, M./Gómez T.utor, C./Menzer, C. (Hg.): Lehrer. Bildung. Medien. Herausforderungen für die Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Schule. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, S. 129-141. Schmölz, A. (2016): Ernsthafte Spiele als Anlass für Ko-Kreativität? In: Haag, J. (Hg.), Game Based Learning: Dialogorientierung & spielerisches Lernen analog und digital; Beiträge zum 4. Tag der Lehre an der FH St.Pölten am 15.10. 2015. Brunn am Gebirge: ikon Verlags GesmbH, 107-118. Schütze, F. (1983): Biographieforschung und narratives Interview. In: Neue Praxis 13 , 3, pp. 283-293. URN: http:// nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-53147. Swertz, C. & Mildner, K. (2015): Partizipative medienpädagogische Aktionsforschung. Methodologische Überlegungen anlässlich einer Untersuchung der Medienkompetenz von und durch SchülerInnen an Neuen Mittelschulen in Wien aus Sicht des Theorie-Praxis-Problems. In: medienimpulse 4/2015 [http://www.medienimpulse.at/articles/view/864] Swertz. C., Kern. G. & Kováčová, E. (2014): Der mediale Habitus in der frühen Kindheit [http://dx.doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/22/2014.12.15.X] Swertz, C. (2004): Was das Medium mit der sozialen Arbeit macht: Reflexionen zum Einsatz der Computertechnologie in der pädagogischen Praxis. In: Schindler, W.: Bildung und Lernen Online. München: kopaed, 65–75. Tültzsch-Wijnen, C. (2016): Plädoyer wider eine (medien-)pädagogische Universalpragmatik - Für die "Medienperformanz". In: Medienimpulse 4 [http://www.medienimpulse.at/articles/view/1031]

Author Information

Christian Swertz (presenting / submitting)

Universität of Vienna

Department of Education

Vienna

Alexander Schmoelz (presenting)

University of Vienna

Department of Education

Vienna

Wolfgang Ruge

Universität of Vienna, Austria

Alexxandro Barberi