Media effects research
Research teams at the KFN have investigated various aspects of media use and their effects on recipients over a number of years. Linking crime-related issues with research on media use and media effects is a key concern in several KFN projects. Questionnaire-based surveys are complemented by other empirical social science research methods such as content analysis, qualitative analyses according to grounded theory and social science based experiments.
Four projects deal with the effects of screen media use by children and adolescents:
A first project deals with television reporting on violent crime in Germany and investigates the motives and decision structures of program makers. The project is based on a qualitative questionnaire-based survey of journalists and an analysis of current television news broadcasts, tabloid magazines and features.
The Project Media in Childhood (Medien im Kindesalter) accompanies a cohort of Hanover primary schoolchildren through a period of several years, focusing on their media socialization, their experience of violence in the family and at school, and their school development. Up to secondary school level selected children participatein yearly or two-yearly questionnaire based surveys on these aspects of their lives.
A similar research approach is followed by the project Media Use and School Achievement (Mediennutzung und Schulleistung), which annually surveys a panel of Berlin primary schoolchildren. The research focus is on how media use in leisure time relates to school performance. To enable better understanding of the exact cause-effect mechanisms between media use and school achievement, the Berlin panel study is supplemented by media psychology and neuropsychological experiments looking at the influence of media reception on memory consolidation of newly encountered knowledge.
In a fourth project, which started in 2010, an interdisciplinary research team studies internet and video game addiction.
Four projects deal with the effects of screen media use by children and adolescents:
A first project deals with television reporting on violent crime in Germany and investigates the motives and decision structures of program makers. The project is based on a qualitative questionnaire-based survey of journalists and an analysis of current television news broadcasts, tabloid magazines and features.
The Project Media in Childhood (Medien im Kindesalter) accompanies a cohort of Hanover primary schoolchildren through a period of several years, focusing on their media socialization, their experience of violence in the family and at school, and their school development. Up to secondary school level selected children participatein yearly or two-yearly questionnaire based surveys on these aspects of their lives.
A similar research approach is followed by the project Media Use and School Achievement (Mediennutzung und Schulleistung), which annually surveys a panel of Berlin primary schoolchildren. The research focus is on how media use in leisure time relates to school performance. To enable better understanding of the exact cause-effect mechanisms between media use and school achievement, the Berlin panel study is supplemented by media psychology and neuropsychological experiments looking at the influence of media reception on memory consolidation of newly encountered knowledge.
In a fourth project, which started in 2010, an interdisciplinary research team studies internet and video game addiction.
Furthermore, the topic of media use by children and adolescents is also a focus of regularly questionnaire-based surveys of school pupils.
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