The communicative construction of collectivities: an interdisciplinary approach to media history

Abstract: The paper discusses some concepts, trends, and deficits in recent media history, and it makes a plea for a history of communication to implement media into a broader conception of social history. Therefore, we employ a wider notion of mediatization which is used in media and communication studies, and re-formulate it for historical research. On the basis of that notion, we introduce the theoretical concept of ‘communicative figurations’ which an interdisciplinary research group in Bremen and Hamburg developed to ask how changing media environments and ensembles interrelate with societal and political transformations. In transferring it in research on imagined communities in times of analogue media, the paper presents some early insights into an on-going project and pursues questions about the communicative construction of collectivities

Object Details

• Alternative title: Die kommunikative Konstruktion von Kollektivitäten: ein interdisziplinärer Zugang zur Mediengeschichte
• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: The communicative construction of collectivities: an interdisciplinary approach to media history ; volume:41 ; number:1 ; year:2016 ; pages:328-357 ; Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; Historical social research ; 41, Heft 1 (2016), 328-357

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Nachrichtenmedien, Journalismus, Verlagswesen

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Marszolek, Inge ; Robel, Yvonne

Further information

• DOI: 10.12759/hsr.41.2016.1.328-357
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-46516-3
• Rights: Open Access; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:55 AM CEST