Media Change & Innovation

Research

The Division on Media Change & Innovation analyzes driving forces, the development, the consequences and the controllability of media change. It investigates technical, social, economic and political innovations and focuses on social science aspects of mediatisation/information society, emphasizing in particular the phenomenon of convergence and new media. Example research questions include:

Driving forces:

• How can media change be theoretically grasped?
• How do innovations occur?
• How do technical, economic, political and social changes interrelate?

Development:

• What diffusion patterns of new media are discernable?
• How can the diffusion patterns be explained?

Consequences:

• What consequences arise for the economics and politics of communications in general, and for communications research in particular?
• What business and revenue models characterize new media? How do market structures change?
• Are old media substituted by new media?
• What are the implications for public service broadcasting?
• What are the consequences for communications research and the models of the public spheres?
• What is the impact on data and consumer protection and the vulnerability of society?
• What are the consequences for media concentration control?

Controllability:

• To what extent is media change controllable and shapeable?
• What patterns of governance emerge for the convergent communications sector?
• Does media convergence entail the end of sector-specific regulation and what is the standing of competition law?
• How does the role of the state change in the convergent communications sector, how important are self- and co-regulation?

For comprehensive information on research projects see www.mediachange.ch/research