The changing place of the media in the European home

Министерство образования  и науки Российской Федерации

Саратовский государственный технический  университет

 

кафедра «Прикладные иностранные языки и коммуникативная компетенция»

 

 

 

 

 

 

Зачётная работа

 

по курсу

«Английский язык»

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

проверила:                    Давыдова Е.Ю. дата: подпись:		выполнила: студентка группы ИТМ 11                      Анисимова Н.С.                        дата: 25.12.10 подпись:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Саратов, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The changing place of the media in the European home.

 

1) Understanding media in the family

 

     Two broad trends dominate the explanation of family media access.

 

     - First, Rogers’ (1962) diffusion theory predicts that as each technological innovation enters the market, early adopters will tend to be male, affluent and young, but that once diffusion spreads, the adoption curve will accelerate before tailing off, leaving the ‘laggards’ or, often, the

disadvantaged (poorer, older) to take longer to gain access, if they ever do.

 

     - Second, the presence of children in the household matters: parents tend to acquire more media goods when they have children, being generally ‘ahead’ of the adult population in general, while children pressure parents to keep up to date and to diversify media use according to their growing tastes and interests; overall, it seems, families tend to consider a media‐rich home a ‘well‐provided for’ home.

 

     Whatever media are possessed by the household, Livingstone (2002; see also Gauntlett and Hill, 1999; Morley, 1986; Palmer, 1986) observes that they perform a range of functions in household and familial spaces:

 

     - Provision of a common leisure activity, often an activity which brings together the generations and which may both stimulate or allow avoidance of family communication (especially, co‐viewing television may provide a non‐contentious joint activity for conflicted family members).

 

     - Provision of symbolic resources for family myths and narratives – from simple communication facilitation through provision of a common topic of conversation, to the more complex negotiation of rules and expectations (this in contrast to the notion of media as supplanting family conversation).

 

     - The mediation of reception (for example parents frame children’s interpretation of media contents or encourage social learning from such contents, while children may invite interpretative guidance from parents, etc), this in turn sustaining the negotiation of values, common opinions and a family culture.

 

     - The regulation of family time and space, whether as structured or casual, and whether together, in various combinations, in parallel or apart; this includes the use of media to define ‘appropriate’ activities for different spaces (public, private) or times (homework time, bedtime).

 

     - The mediation of family subsystems, where, depending on patterns of power within the

household, as well as motivations to be independent or communal, the media may be used in any of a number of ways (as a scapegoat, boundary marker, time manager, stress reducer, bartering agent, babysitter, companion, etc), including, in extreme cases, a rationale for the separation of all family members in their own media‐bubbles.

 

     In reviewing research on adolescents’ media use across Europe, Roe (2000) observes the following:

 

     - On individualised and collective use of the media: following Pasquier et al (1998), Roe observes that despite privatisation of media access, media experience still tends to be shared with other family members. In Italy and Sweden, the privatisation of access and use is greater; only part of media use is collective. In France and Flanders, media tend to be more integrated into collective dynamics especially in lower socioeconomic status (SES) French families, for whom television is at the centre of daily routines and interactions.

 

     - Family subsystems: Roe cites Pasquier et al (1998) to observe that interaction around the media reinforces links between certain family members: a strong mother–daughter link around television, brother–brother around video games, and father–son around the computer, a development that has profound consequences for gender segregation. Ribak (2001) makes a similar observation a decade later in relation to the internet, although notes further that fathers may feel threatened by the expertise of their sons regarding computers/internet.

 

     - Physical spaces and types of homes are classified following Wentling (1990) into traditional and transitional, the former type of homes being privacy‐oriented, emphasising separate, one‐purpose rooms. Roe (2000: 17) states that:

 

… transitional homes are less private, more open, and community‐oriented. Within those two types, the distribution of media appliances may fulfil different functions. For example, in a study of Flemish families, Van Rompaey et al 2000), found that in more traditional homes, the second TV set (and increasingly, the second CD player, VCR, game console, and computer) may be functional for family cohesion because it helps avoid conflict by keeping family members apart. Consequently, in such homes a degree of compartmentalization reduces tension and is sought by family members.

 

2) European homes domesticate new technologies

 

     As television has been increasingly complemented, if surprisingly little displaced, by the use of new interactive technologies within the home, a new body of British and European research developed, following Silverstone’s (2006) concept of domestication of new technologies in the 1990s. The argument, in essence, was that even once technologies had been purchased by the household, the process of rendering them meaningful, finding them both space and time in the life of the family, is an unfolding process of interpretation and adjustment (Silverstone, 2006), “ongoing processes rather than being a one‐off event” (Haddon, 2006: 196).

 

     Thus researchers examined the place of television, telephone and teleworking in British households, including the use of ICT among lone parents and the young elderly (Haddon, 2000, Silverstone, 1999). Haddon and Silverstone, writing on teleworking in British homes (1993), drew attention to the concept of the moral economy of the household which produced the capacity of families and households to negotiate with the public meanings and pre‐defined uses of ICT (Silverstone et al, 1992). Their study of British families and teleworking led to distinct findings by gender, for it was almost always women who took up teleworking and that most of these women had a commitment first and foremost to their domestic role, then finding work which could be fitted in with that. Haddon and Silverstone’s study discovered many reasons behind teleworking, namely, to avoid commuting, as alternative work, as a reaction to work problems, forced by redundancy, as entrepreneurship and as a preference for the domestic site over work site.

 

     This advanced research beyond Morley’s (1986) study of ‘family television’, which had been influential in shifting the unit of study from individuals to families and which had revealed the living room conflicts of gender and generation which determined the place of media in the home (cf. Ang’s Living room wars, 1996, and the feminist ethnography of Press, 1991 and Radway, 1984). Parallel examples from the US include Hoover and Clark’s (2004) account of the media use in eight very different US families, some of them very religious. They charted the subtle embedding of media forms and meanings in families’ value systems, moral perspectives, gender relations and social practices, and the array of strategies and tactics employed by both children and parents in negotiating values and the public/private boundary.

 

     The resultant ‘domestication’ framework attuned researchers to the taken‐for‐granted practices of everyday life and emphasised people’s agency in appropriating or domesticating media goods, fitting them within their pre-existing frameworks of meaning and practice (Berker et al, 2006) in ways which may contrast with explicit discourses of media consumption and are certainly not predictable from the intentions of product developers, producers or marketers. Haddon (2000) found that the telephone gained new significance for the young elderly, how those watching more television were often more house-bound, and how basic telephony and the telephone at work meant a lot to single parents and those who had returned to work.

 

     Social class was an important consideration in the empirical research reported by Haddon (2000). He pointed out that ”the very horizons of those single parents with few financial resources could be more limited by their experience of having a low income” (p 392) Haddon’s earlier work with Silverstone on lone parents’ use of ICT made a similar point: most lone parents were concerned about their telephone use and felt pressured to cut back on usage. Most phoned during the cheap tariffs and if they could not they were worried about the costs. Their study also revealed that telephone stamps not only provided some self-discipline in saving but also spread the cost of bills.

 

     More recently a training network of seven laboratories in the EU was brought together by Silverstone to examine the meaning of media within everyday life and diasporic and organisational contexts across Europe. As Haddon (2007: 28) observes, “both early and later studies had looked at groups other than household members and at sites other then the home, such as computer hackers in clubs (Håpnes, 1996) and participants in internet training courses (Hynes and Rommes, 2005)”. In discussing non-use of new technologies, Selwyn (2003: 110) extends the domestication concept to the individual user thus:

 

… with mobile ICTs increasingly less ‘fixed’ to the confines of institutions (be it fixed in terms of physical connection to power supplies and network connections or fixed in terms of ownership) it can be argued that technologies go through a process of domestication into the ‘moral economies’ of people’s lives as well as across all the institutional settings that they are brought into. Therefore each individual will be constantly negotiating the ‘proper placement of technology’ into their lives according to a range of personal and institutional factors.

 

     Bergman and van Zoonen (1999), reporting from a small qualitative study in the Netherlands, found that structural factors did not as such become barriers for women accessing ICT. Internet

communication for these women was seen to be a virtual translation of feminine concerns of personal contacts, sharing and community creation. Frissen (2000: 70), writing from the Netherlands, presents findings of a small-scale qualitative study in ‘busy’ households, noting the importance of a pressured time schedule in the way the households operate and use technology:

 

ICTs tend to have an ambiguous role, which results in tensions regarding acceptance. On the one hand, ICTs are seen – and used – as instruments for organizing daily life because they tend to increase flexibility and control. Furthermore, they are seen as useful because of their mobility, interactivity, and time-saving potential. On the other hand, they are just as much seen as time‐consuming technologies and as lacking flexibility and control.

 

     Hynes and Rommes (2005) note, in relation to people taking introductory computer courses in the Netherlands and Ireland, the importance of social and cultural capital, this affecting how inequalities impact on how technologies are rendered meaningful and thus useful. Ward (2005: 154) shows how people who use technology at home distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘home’: as work and technology become linked while working from home, “most users carefully balanced the ‘intrusion’ of the technology and its ability to disrupt the household’s value system, accepting the inevitability of some changes, with active attempts to domesticate the new medium”.

 

 

 

 

 

Summary.

     The title of this article "The Changing Place of the media in the European Home".  The author of article isn't mentioned.

     The main problem of this article a s using Media our days. I think this article can be divided into two parts. In the first part of this article author tells about functions Media in household and familial spaces.

     In the second part author gives information about "family television" research.

     As for as I understand from the text, the author makes a conclusion that Media has an ambiguous role, which results in tensions regarding acceptance. May be its not true but I have the same opinion.

     I think this article is very interesting and informative. I think so because the problem describes in the text is very actual. It was very useful for me to read this article.

 

 

Перевод.

The changing place of the media in the European home

 

1) Understanding media in the family

 

     Two broad trends dominate the explanation of family media access.

 

     - First, Rogers’ (1962) diffusion theory predicts that as each technological innovation enters the market, early adopters will tend to be male, affluent and young, but that once diffusion spreads, the adoption curve will accelerate before tailing off, leaving the ‘laggards’ or, often, the

disadvantaged (poorer, older) to take longer to gain access, if they ever do.

 

     - Second, the presence of children in the household matters: parents tend to acquire more media goods when they have children, being generally ‘ahead’ of the adult population in general, while children pressure parents to keep up to date and to diversify media use according to their growing tastes and interests; overall, it seems, families tend to consider a media‐rich home a ‘well‐provided for’ home.

 

     Whatever media are possessed by the household, Livingstone (2002; see also Gauntlett and Hill, 1999; Morley, 1986; Palmer, 1986) observes that they perform a range of functions in household and familial spaces: […]

 

Изменение роли СМИ в Европе.

 

1) Понятие СМИ в  семье.

 

     Существуют два основных предположения о семейном доступе к СМИ.

 

     - Первая – доступ к СМИ зависит от материальной обеспеченности семьи. Разумеется, когда на рынке появляется технологическое новшество, больший доступ к этому имеют более обеспеченные люди, чем обездоленные (к примеру, пожилые или бедные).

 

     - Вторая говорит о том, что наличие СМИ в доме зависит от того, есть ли в семье дети: родители, как правило, приобретают больше СМИ, если у них есть дети. Дети хотят шагать в ногу со временем и используют СМИ в зависимости от их постоянно меняющихся вкусов и интересов.

 

      Вне зависимости  от наличия СМИ в доме, Ливингстон замечает, что они выполняют различные функции в домашнем хозяйстве и семье: […]

 

 

 

Our SSTU.

     Saratov State Technical University is one of the biggest educational and scientific centers of the Volga region. Today SSTU is a single study-scientific-industrial complex, which includes 92 departments, 16 faculties, institutes, educational, scientific and academic research centers. There are 11 buildings with audiences, educational and scientific laboratories, display classes, club, sport hall, a library with about two million books. Top graduates after technical university study a postgraduate courses for the preparation of master's there. The final link in the system of training scientific personnel  of highest qualification is a doctoral SSTU.

     Our faculty is International Education Centre. There are children school Aptech in our faculty. There are many modern technologies in IEC. Our students work with computer and different programs. There are many creative students in this faculty. Studying is very interesting because there are many performances and students take part in this.

     My specialty is Information Technologies in Media-industry.  I choose this specialty because I think that this is very interesting. I like work with computers graphic programs. I think I will find job very easy because this specialty  is very modern and claimed.

 

Dictionary.

 

№	слово	транскрипция	перевод
1	broad		широкий
2	trend		тенденция
3	dominate		доминировать
4	explanation		объяснение
5	access		доступ
6	diffusion		распространение
7	theory		теория
8	predict		предсказать
9	innovation		новшество
10	enter		вступить
11	market		рынок
12	affluent		приток
13	disrupt		разрушать
14	adoption		принятие
15	accelerate		ускориться
16	laggard		отстающий
17	gain		выгода
18	presence		присутствие
19	household		домашнее хозяйство
20	matter		вопрос
21	acquire		приобрести
22	ahead		вперед
23	adult		взрослый
24	population		население
25	pressure		давление
26	diversify		разносторонне развитый
27	grow		расти
28	taste		вкус
29	interest		интерес
30	overall		повсюду
31	consider		рассмотреть
32	possess		обладать
33	observe		наблюдать
34	perform		выступить
35	range		диапазон
36	space		место
37	bring		принести
38	avoidance		предотвращение
39	provide		обеспечить
40	contentious		спорный
41	notion		понятие
42	content		содержание
43	guidance		руководство
44	common		обычный
45	various		различный
46	pattern		образец
47	within		в пределах
48	rationale		объяснение
49	separation		разделение
50	member		участник
51	privatisation		приватизация
52	reinforce		укрепить
53	link		связь
54	development		развитие
55	former		прежний
56	privacy		частная жизнь
57	surprisingly		удивительно
58	displace		переместить
59	attention		внимание
60	moral		мораль
61	redundancy		избыточность
62	domestic		внутренний
63	gender		пол
64	value		ценность
65	framework		структура
66	pre-existing		раннее существующий
67	social		общественный
68	resource		ресурс
69	lone		одинокий
70	cheap		дешевый
71	tariff		тариф
72	cost		стоимость
73	spread		распространение
74	barriers		барьеры
75	qualitative		качественный
76	importance		важность
77	operate		действовать
78	schedule		список
79	introductory		вводный
80	ability		способность