Managing Mediatization: How Media Users Negotiate a Successful Integration of (New) Media in Everyday Life

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the integration and use of new (digital) media can be conceptualized as a process of appropriation, which is shaped by accepting or rejecting media and mediatization. It is understood as a user-driven process during which the media users decide whether they understand new media and their usage as adequate or not. The chapter aims to contribute theoretically to this topic by defining the users’ role in the mediatization of everyday life more precisely. Empirical findings are presented that display how the users negotiate mediatization and the functions of media in society. The theoretical background relates mediatization to the understanding of media appropriation in Cultural Media Studies and reflects on the question of whether the integration of the Cultural Studies understanding of appropriation allows ethical questions that are linked to mediatization to be answered. Empirically, the chapter presents findings on the negotiation of mediatization and appropriate media use in everyday life based on qualitative interviews.