Finnischer Bericht zur Lage der deutschen Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften

Das Communication Research Centre der Uni Helsinki hat einen Bericht über die Lage der Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften in den Ländern Finnland, U.S.A., Deutschland, Frankreich, Japan, Estland und Australien erstellt. Die meisten empirischen Informationen zu Deutschland stammen natürlich aus deutschen Untersuchungen, es ist aber sehr interessant, die hiesige Situation mal aus einer völlig anderen Perspektive beschrieben zu sehen.

Bemerkenswert fand ich vor allem die Diskussion über die, im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern, kaum stattfindende Rezeption der Cultural Studies in Deutschland. Die Autoren sehen hier ein Potenzial, sich aus verkrusteten Strukturen zu lösen:

Thus the “mainstream” of German Communication and Media Studies has remained relatively unchanged by the emergence of alternative research paradigms that propose not just more qualitative rather than quantitative research methods, but also more theoretically informed methods of research project elaboration.

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Yet Cultural Studies has had a difficult and ambivalent reception in Germany, in both the wider intellectual culture Communication and Media Studies. The reasons for this seem to consist in a combination of a discrepancy between national-linguistic intellectual traditions and different academic institutional histories and contemporary reformations. In our opinion, the difficult reception of Cultural Studies is symptomatic of the specificity and revealing of some of the defining tensions of contemporary German Communication and Media Studies. Viewed from another perspective, however, it also represents one of the most fruitful opportunities for the growth of the discipline in a period of increasing internationalisation.

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For Communication and Media Studies in particular, the approaching season of retirement of many of the currently leading figures of the discipline represents a challenge of transition, and also perhaps an opportunity for renewal. In order to respond adequately to these challenges and opportunities, German Communication and Media Studies will need to expand its horizons and think creatively about its relations with the University, the Media, and the general public. In our view, the discipline needs to reflect upon its theoretical presuppositions and the ways in which it understands its self-identity. Most importantly, emerging practitioners and researchers need to confront the challenge of overcoming the inner cleavage of the discipline between Communication and Media perspectives and develop new research paradigms capable of comprehending the integration of these practices, both within Germany and on the international terrain.

Technorati Tags: Medienwissenschaft, Kommunikationswissenschaft, Universität, Deutschland