Formats and Practices of Media Studies in the Age of Digital and Social Networks: An Ethnographic and Netnographic Study

• Applicant: Dr. Sophie Einwächter
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 441413969

Digital and social media transform scholarly cultures. While Science and Technology Studies mostly focus on the Natural Sciences, the qualitatively grounded focus of this project lies on the digitally-induced transformations within the Humanities, using the discipline of German (Cultural) Media Studies (Schröter 2016) as a case in point. Harnessing the media-reflexive capabilities of Media Studies scholars, the project investigates common scholarly media and media practices, interviewing actors about their everyday professional life. The first study (A) investigates relevant media of German Media Studies that are currently being used for purposes of research, teaching, publication, evaluation and networking - both on- and offline. The study analyses their aesthetics as well as the conditions of their usage, production, and distribution (Altheide und Schneider 2013; Baym 2010).The second study’s (B) focus lies on scholarly media practices and related problems and aims to gain insight into academics’ handling of new media within their professional surroundings: Which means of media production and distribution do they use? Which roles do digital feedback and forms of attention play in the context of their work? Which aspects of scholarly competition can be observed in social networks? Which problems do scholars perceive to be a part of the socially networked environment and which narratives and interpretations dominate? The analysis draws on a 1.5 years long ethnographic/netnographic (Kozinets 2010) study with 40 ethnographic and problem-focused interviews. Their goal is to document how German Media Studies scholars reflect(ed) on new media and transformations of scholarly culture at the beginning of the 21st century and to make these documents available to other researchers through collaborating with the Marburg University Media Studies repository (media/rep/) in storing and making accessible those field data and interviews that are considered to be of long-term value to the research community.The project strives to add a perspective to the ethnographic studies of science that is currently underrepresented – combining a Media & Cultural Studies approach with sociological empirical research and focusing on a discipline from the Humanities rather than the Natural Sciences. It also contributes to the preservation of Media Studies-related research data.The project also aims to compile and evaluate the growing body of scholarly literature from various disciplines focusing on digitally and socially networked scholarship paying special attention to the aspect of mediality.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants