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The introductory chapter of this book is in two parts. Part one illustrates how our concept pursues both academic and social goals. We outline its foundation in the in terms of “dedicated social research”. It deals with the situation of socially disadvantaged families and adolescents against the backdrop of widening of inequality within society and an increasing participation gap. As nearly all parts of our everyday lives are strongly connected with media, we discuss all the above developments in relation to the meta-process of mediatization. Part two gives an overview of the book, with short summaries of the following eight chapters on theory, methodology, and results, as well as a concluding discussion.

This chapter of this book deals with the connections between social inequality, childhood and media. The first part is dedicated to national contexts of social inequality and to a discussion of social disadvantage in rich Western societies, with the specific examples of Austria and Germany. The second part deals with the connection between inequality and mediatization. One central argument is that a disadvantageous position in a mediatised society often leads to a lack of participation in society (education, job perspectives and so on). In our mediatised Western societies, participation is closely connected to (digital) media, so that socialisation often becomes media socialisation. We will preface a survey of relevant trends in global mediatization with a literature review covering the evidence of the links between social disadvantages and media experiences. To conclude, we will discuss the consequences of mediatization for academic research on young people’s growing up in general and for our study on media socialisation among socially disadvantaged adolescents in particular.

The study is based on a praxeological research perspective on the processes involved in the media socialisation of children and adolescents. It treats the socialisation as a dynamic and interlinked process acting on both the individual child and the relevant social contexts. Our approach is, therefore, focused on the lifeworld of a child in the family, where everyday life happens and where, most importantly, media activity is already being endowed with meaning in early childhood. This approach to media socialisation allows researchers to understand the subjective nature of a child’s media practices (providing a link to his/her family), as well as his/her , , and . Using these three central analytical concepts, the role of the media, against the backdrop of socio-structural conditions, becomes understandable, in as far as it relates to the interlinkage of subjective perceptions, orientations motivating action and everyday life practices.

This chapter outlines our study’s specific methodological approach as derived from its theoretical foundation. We deal with the questions of collecting, processing and analysing data from a qualitative longitudinal study over 12 years from 2005 to 2017 but also with questions of recruitment and panel maintenance, as well as ethical issues. This chapter, therefore, focuses on the ways in which the methodological design was revised and judiciously complemented, in order to grasp the complexity of the topic. Following the logic of triangulation, we developed and implemented a rich design, where all the components draw on, complement, and monitor each other in the processes of data collection and analysis. This means that we have to discuss the importance of transparency and comprehensibility in terms of intersubjectivity, paying special attention to the qualitative and longitudinal character of the study.

This chapter provides an overview over the 18 families still participating at the end of the study. We briefly summarise each family’s situation as it developed over the years. With regard to the relevant selection criteria (see Chapter 4), our focus is on the socio-economic situation of each family, with particular attention to income, job situation, housing situation, formal education (of parents), family constellation (nuclear family, patchwork family, single-parent households, extended families, migration background etc.). The summaries illustrate each family’s experience over this period, especially with regard to their socio-economic and socio-emotional development. We also include information about the particular children we interviewed and about their ages in each wave of interviews with the respective families (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016), including the final callback interview (2017).

This chapter focuses on the core aspects of the longitudinal study over nearly twelve years: the dynamic development of the children and their media repertoires, on the one hand, and the role of different contexts of socialisation, such as parents, siblings, relatives and friends of the family on the other hand. Very relevant factors here are kindergartens, schools, assisted living communities, peers in general, the children’s friends and, later, apprenticeships—sometimes with residence in hostels—and romantic involvements. In addition, we noted (sports)clubs and, last but not least, the role of politics and society as important. They all affect the children in different ways at various stages of their personal development. Against this background, the chapter sheds light on the variety of ways in which both children and parents incorporate media (“established” as well as “new” media), into their everyday lives.

This chapter sheds light on how, over an extended period, the parents of the longitudinal study mediated the children’s use of the media. We discuss this from two angles: on the one hand, with respect to both the children’s age and their media usage and, on the other hand, with respect to changing conditions in the families’ everyday lives. After that, we discuss what we term the “practices of mediation” observed in the study, how they differ and how they are related to , and .

This chapter presents a typology of the socially disadvantaged families of the panel. We derive it from our discovery of the similarities in, and the differences between, the respective family lives () of our subjects. Accordingly, the basic characteristics of each type will now be described in detail by discussing four cases more extensively than the rest, in order to provide an insight into and a deeper understanding of the individual lifeworlds of the children and their families. In addition, we will present shorter case summaries for each family from the panel, together with their type-specific characteristics. This chapter seeks, then, to demonstrate how various factors interact in a complex interplay that shapes the individual living situation of individual families and of each family member in them. The typology presented in this chapter, therefore, provides insight into the dynamics, both with media involvement and otherwise, of family life and socialisation.

This final chapter aims to summarise our project, as presented above, by explicating its scope, limitations and benefits, as well as setting out its potential. Based on the results of the longitudinal study, we discuss how appreciating the complex interplay of factors shaping the lives of children as they grow up can help policy makers and stakeholders to develop more individualised approaches to supporting and encouraging children and their families. Furthermore, we wish to stress that our findings do not reflect circumstances peculiar to the Austrian context: within our theoretical framework, we interpret them as empirical evidence demonstrating how existing conditions, patterns of and individual factors shape socialisation processes. A range of contexts interacts with individual factors, but not in a manner peculiar to one region. Such interaction indicates a general pattern that is widely relevant to understanding socialisation within mediatised societies.