Warum wir eine gemeinwohlorientierte Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft brauchen
摘要
Inspired by recent debates on the closer exchange between academia and society, I want to find out, which forms of exchange between Media and Communication Studies and society are reflected in the width of our discipline.
To answer this question, I conduct a qualitative content analysis of 81 texts from the German Communication Association, the journals Publizistik and SCM, and the magazine aviso.
The analysis shows that, above all, knowledge transfer and teaching are reflected often and approvingly, while some forms of exchange such as science popularization and scitainment have received few or no attention in these publications so far and other forms of exchange oriented towards the public are rarely but controversely reflected.
From the critical discussion of the results, I develop a holistic understanding of the exchange between Media and Communication Studies and society. Given the multiple crises of the present, I propose Media and Communication Studies for the Common Good. In this ideal-typical understanding, three dimensions of exchange between Media and Communication Studies and society are integrated normative dimension: Media and Communication Studies is critical of society, formal dimension: Media and Communication Studies enters an exchange with society, and conditional dimension Media and Communication Studies takes care of their conditions in society.