Media Generations: Experience, Identity and Mediatised Social Change

162 Pages·2016·1.015 MB·English

by  Göran Bolin

MEDIA GENERATIONS

While the analysis of generations has been central in the sociological understanding
of social change, the role of the media in this process has only been acknowledged
as an important feature during the last couple of decades. Building on quantita-
tive and qualitative comparative research, Media Generations analyses the role of the
media in the formation of generational experience, identity and habitus, and how
mediated nostalgia is an important part of the social formation of generations.
Avoiding popular generational labelling, Göran Bolin argues that the totality of the
media landscape is a contextual structure that, together with age and life-course
factors, help inform world views and ways to relate to the wider society that guide
the actions of media users. Media Generations demonstrates how different genera-
tions come of age at different moments in the mediatised historical process, and not
only develop different media habits, but also make sense of the world differently,
which informs their relations to older and younger generations.
It also explores how this process of ‘generationing’, that is, the process in which a
generation comes into being as a self-perceived social identity, partly builds on spe-
cific kinds of nostalgia that establish generational differences and distinctions. This
book will be of special interest to those studying social change, collective memory,
cultural identity and the role of the media in social experience.
Göran Bolin is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn
University, Stockholm, Sweden. He is the author of Value and the Media: Cultural
Production and Consumption in Digital Markets (2011), and editor of Cultural Technol-
ogies: The Shaping of Culture in Media and Society (2012).
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MEDIA GENERATIONS

Experience, identity and mediatised
social change
Göran Bolin
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Göran Bolin

The right of Göran Bolin to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bolin, Göran, author.
Title: Media generations : experience, i dentity and mediatised social
change/ Göran Bolin.
Description: London; New York : Routledge, 2016. | Includes
bibliographicalreferences and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016002031| ISBN 9781138907676 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781138907683(pbk) | ISBN 9781315694955 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Mass media--Social aspects. | Mass media and culture. |
Social change. | Population aging.
Classification: LCC HM1206 .B65 2016 | DDC 302.23--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/
2016002031
ISBN: 978-1-138-90767-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-90768-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69495-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK
For generations to come
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CONTENTS

List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
1 The problem of media and generations 7
2 Age, cohort, life course and generation 26
3 Generation as location: Media landscapes and generations 44
4 Generation as actuality: Subjective landscapes of media
generations 65
5 Nostalgia and the process of generationing 98
6 Generation, mediatisation and the rhythm of ages 117
References 134
Index 146
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
2.1 Daily use of different mobile functions among three age
cohorts of Swedish mobile owners (2013) 34
3.1 ‘Objective’ media landscape in Sweden from 1800s to the
present, and the historical localisation of three ‘potential
generations’ in this landscape 48
3.2 Generation as location: three Swedish age cohorts and their
use of three functions on the mobile phone 2003–2013 50
3.3 ‘Objective’ media content landscape in Sweden from 1900
to the present, and the historical localisation of three
‘potential generations’ in this landscape 53
3.4 Percentage of ownership of mobile phones in Estonia and
Sweden, 1993–2008 56
3.5 Non-access to landline telephones in different age groups
in Sweden, 2002–2013 57
3.6 Percentage of Estonians and Swedes aged 18–24 years old using
text and voice mobile functions daily, 2002–2012 59
4.1 ‘Objective’ media landscape 1800s to the present, and the
trajectory through it by four generations. Based on media
developments in Sweden and Estonia 67
4.2 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Swedish early-1940s
generation focus group 71
4.3 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Estonian early-1940s
generation focus group 73
4.4 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Swedish early-1960s
generation focus group 76
List of illustrations ix
4.5 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Estonian early-1960s
generation focus group 77
4.6 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Swedish late-1970s
generation focus group 80
4.7 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Estonian late-1970s
generation focus group 82
4.8 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Swedish early-1990s
generation focus group 84
4.9 The ‘subjective’ media landscape of the Estonian early-1990s
generation focus group 86
Tables
2.1 Ranked preferences for news topics among five generational
cohorts of Estonian media users 2002, 2008 and 2011 39
3.1 Landline ownership and abandonment among mobile owners
in Estonia and Sweden, 2002 (per cent) 56
3.2 Percentage of Estonians, Swedes, Americans and Japanese aged
18–24 years old sending and/or receiving more than 20 voice
calls or 20 text messages per day, 2007–2008 60