Research Program 3 “Knowledge for the Media Society” analyses how evidence-based knowledge from the field of media and communication science can help to meet the challenges of media change.
Our research questions are:
- How can media change be systematically and continuously monitored?
- In which way does media change show up in various areas of society and their shared knowledge?
- How can science sustainably uphold its mission of knowledge transfer within media society?
In the face of media change, science must react appropriately to new challenges and make its social responsibility more visible. Research Program 3 reflects on research processes in which evidence-based knowledge is generated from the field of media and communication sciences. In dialogue with societal actors, the research program analyses how such knowledge can help to overcome the challenges caused by media change. Such research of transfer takes place in close exchange with actors from various fields of society.
Areas of Competence
In four areas, in which the Institute has been conducting basic and applied research for many years, demand-oriented and empirically based answers to current societal problems are being developed. These so-called ‘areas of competence’ in which the Institute is perceived as a relevant knowledge agency by scientific, societal and political actors, are:
- Growing Up with Digital Media
- Public Service and Public Value
- Health Communication
- Media History
How do we implement such an agenda?
- We conduct topic-specific research with relevant stakeholders in the areas of competence.
- We reflect on the organisation of research processes in order to make knowledge from the field of media and communication science available to the various information needs in a sustainable way.
- We analyse the domain-specific changes in science communication and participate in the theory development of transfer research.
In Research Program 3, the consequences of media change for the above-mentioned domains are systematically investigated. On a meta-level, Research Program 3 examines the role of evidence-based media and communication science knowledge in coping with this change by different population and stakeholder groups. Within the above-mentioned areas of competence we take into account: the respective constellation of actors, the action-guiding goals and conflicting goals as well as the way in which knowledge is absorbed and processed.
Spokespersons: Dr. Claudia Lampert, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner
