Springe direkt zu Inhalt

The Convergence of Television and Internet in Production and Usage

Parallel to the emergence of the internet the phenomenon of digitization has pushed forward the transformation of traditional media and forms of communication. Popular terms like Social TV, Second Screen or Multi-optional TV indicate that television, which is still the most popular medium of our society, is placed at the center of these developments. Communication science is faced with the challenge to describe those marketing-oriented terms systematically as well as testing and, if necessary, adjusting existing models of public communication. Up to now, the consequences of this convergence of television and internet both for theories of mass communication and media policy are mostly unclear.

Therefore this project aims on describing these new forms of communication and exploring the consequences for explanatory models of television content and use. A special challenge is the duality of technical development and usage of media outlets. That is why this project shall examine the current changes in television simultaneously from a production and usage perspective. By using qualitative and quantitative surveys and content analyses it purposes first to clarify how far the convergence of television and the internet has created new forms of content and usage. Second it shall examine possible explanations for the emergence of new kinds of media and their usage, which should lead third to an explanatory model that relates the convergent outlets and their usages to one another and can be used to describe both independently of technical devices.

Funding: Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)