Photo by Jackson So
Publish Date: 27.12.2021
Category: Outstanding research achievements, Our contribution to sustainable development goals
Sustainable development goals: 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions (Indicators)
Two researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Prof. Breda Luthar, PhD, and Prof. Maruša Pušnik, PhD, have determined that a radical mediatisation of everyday life has come about, and this is playing a major part in changing the generational structure of how things are felt or experienced.
This year Breda Luthar and Maruša Pušnik published an article titled “Intimate media and technological nature of sociality” in the highly prestigious journal covering new media entitled New Media & Society (impact factor 8.061). In this article, they substantiated the approach to researching the public based on analysis of the artifactual, spatial, temporal and sensorial use of technology and media consumption, and theoretically placed their work within the framework of the so-called medium theory and theory of practice in sociology. In the empirical part, the article is underpinned by a longitudinal study of the media logs of young people aged 19 to 29.
The study found that the circumstances in which digital media have colonised all spheres of social life and where online sociality has become completely naturalised have led to constant online connectivity, as well as highly fragmented communication practices of users moving between various media. Analysis of the logs of media consumption has shown that a radical mediatisation has emerged, and this plays an important part in the generational structure of feeling, with a generationally specific integration of technology into everyday life, characterised by spatial and social distance to the outside world and constant scattered attention (or lack thereof).
This article is one of the most important published pieces in the field of communicology and media studies of recent years, and offers theoretically ground-breaking findings about the changes brought about by the ubiquitous nature of technology, and about the social consequences of mediatisation of everyday life.
Source: New Media & Society Volume 23 Issue 5, May 2021 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820912387