The role played by new media in defining generational we-sense

1. The role played by new media in defining generational we-sense Fausto Colombo OssCom - Research Center On Media and Communication CatholicUniversityof Milan Italy

2. Which is the relevance of generational paradigm in this context? • The topic is nowdays at the center of the debate on the new media since the start of the digitilization (see the debate about the Internet Generation, or, just in the last few years, on the so called people of Digital Natives)

3. Actually… • The theoretical concept of “Generation” belong to a very classical tradition of sociological paradigms (i.e. Mannheim), • … and the debate is also now very interesting • on one hand in the social sciences (Corsten, Turner…) • on the other hand in other close disciplines (History, Demography, Marketing…)

4. My approach as a social researcher: a tradition of a school (Osscom)

5. A seriesofresearches • A set of 5 years long field researches, finally merged in a National Research Project, about the relation between media and generations: • 2 years project financed by Italian Ministry of University involving 5 different national universities • 68 biographical interviews • 73 focus groups • 12 couple interviews

6. The background: four (italian) generations: • Dopoguerra (Postwars): born 1940-1952; formative years during the Fifties / mid Sixties • Boomers: born 1953-1965; formative years during the last Sixties / Seventies • Neos: born 1966-1978; formative years during the Eighties / first Nineties • Posts: born 1979-1991; formative years during the Nineties / first years of the new millennium.

7. International congresses • Generations and Broadband Society, Copenhagen May 2009, panel of the congress….. Cost Action….. • Media+Generations, held in Milan, 11-12 september 2009: http://mediageneration.wordpress.com/program/ • Publications: • 2 books (edited with Piermarco Aroldi: italian) • 4 articles on international publications (journals and books: english) • Media+Generations, Summary Report, V&P, Milan, 2009 (english and italian)

8. and a personal history…

9. A –many –years-long qualitative research (more than 200 subject contacted for in depht interview or focus) about the generation of baby boomers in Italy, published in a non-academic book as a collective autobiography

10. Whichdisciplines? • Marketing: generation as a target • Strong identity (Baby Boomers) • Weak identity (X Generation) • Deterministic Identity (Net generation, Nintendo Generation, Digital Natives and so on) • Sociology: generation as a social identity (overall in political action) • History: generation as historical subject of change • Others: (education sciences: generation as a collective receiver of a tradition…)

11. Generations in the sociological tradition (Mannheim, Bourdieu; Corsten, Edmunds & Turner) • “An age cohort that comes to have social significance by virtue of constituting itself as a cultural identity” (Edmunds & Turner). • People who belong to the same generation: • were born in the same period of time • have the same age • share a common world of past, formative, (sometime traumatic) experiences • are nowadays in the same life-cycle position • share a particular “generational semantic” • share a generational “we sense” • share a sort of “habitus”. *

12. What generations are not? • Time-boxes containing groups of people (25 or less years-long boxes, for the old demographic tradition) builded by chance • Simple forms of elective belonging (I can’t choose in total freedom my generational belonging: I can’t choose my date of birth…) • Social deterministic machines for building collective identities between co-agers (sometimes people choose between two possible elective generations)

13. What Generations are? Like many social facts, they are, first of all, what we can observe about them… • In order of social continuum • Regularity (there is a series of generations… one following the other) • Contrast (some generations are more protagonist in social arena) • In order of the perspective of observation • From outside • From inside

14. In order of social continuum

15. Like a wave • A = In deep water. • B = In shallow water. The elliptical movement of a surface particle becomes flatter with decreasing depth. • 1 = Progression of wave • 2 = Crest • 3 = Trough

16. Regularity • Diversity between different generations • Identity (family, or nation) • Cohabitation (they live together, or in the same time)

17. and for what media are concerned… Is it still the same in the era of digital television?

18. Contrast Dimension Effects

19. The generational wave of the 68

20. Dimension: global (in the pictures: Berkeley, Paris, Mexixo City, Prague, Rome…) • Effects: politically, culturally very relevant

21. Something more about dimension of generations… • The number of people composing a generation is not useless in determining the generational strenght in a society • But this variable is not sufficient in determine social effects • See the examples of the Baby Boomers in Italy

22. and for what new generations are concerned… Dimension: a global generation? In which sense? Where the action come from? Effects: which ones? Which are the changes?

23. In order of the perspective of observation

24. From outside perspective • Events • Global (Fall of the Berlin Wall, ’89; 9/11/2001) • Glocal (Moonlanding, ‘69) • Local (Vermicino, Italia, ‘81) • The role played by media in allowing the access to the event (but also to interpretate the event, enphasize it before, memorize or create a sort of nostalgia, after).

25. Global, Local, Glocal

26. From outside perspective (1) • Everyday Life • Tradition • Soft culture • Public and private environment • The role of the media • Artifacts, as a domestic landscape • Cultural role (rituals, cultural forms, contents…)

27. BB generation…

28. Other generational media tools

29. Some generational confusion?

30. From outside perspective (2) • Social definitions • sterotypes from old generations • stereotypes from media (like a lot of the marketing definitions, or typical generational contents) • Social context • Welfare crisis: guaranteed and non guaranteed generations • Institutional changes • Transformation and innovation driven by institutions (like DTT) or by the market (transformation of the standards): digital immigrants vs digital natives?

31. From inside perspective (1) • Collective self identification My experience with the Baby Boomers • Self narration Production/selection of generational texts as expressive of a generational identity (think global about Twilight Saga, and local about Moccia’s books in Italy)

32. From inside perspective (2) • Sharing Experiences, life seasons, contents • Symbolic identification Are there some symbolic characters for the generation? (or media propose some of them?)

33. Generation: complexity of a sociological concept • Three reasons why being careful in defining generations by media tools: • Because media role is very complex in interaction with generations • Because generations are different • Because different generations are always interacting between them

34. … and • a reason why being careful in defining new generations • Because new generations are building themselves, but the “from inside” perspective is hidden to the observation during this phase • And, consequently, our point of view is distorted by more visible “from outside perspective”

35. What can we say about generations and media? • The roleof the media isgrowingifthey can play a 360 degreerole: material landscape, rituals, espressive space, narrationtools • itisdecreasingifnoteverypossibledimension are involved

36. *

37. Forthcoming Publications • F. Colombo, L. Fortunati (ed.), Broadband Society and Generational Changes, Peter LangPublishing Group 2010 (English) • Media+Generations, (ed.) F. Colombo, Angeli, Milano 2010 (italian) • P. Aroldi (ed.), Generazioni, media e società, monographic issue of “Comunicazioni Sociali”, 2010 (english and italian)

38. fausto.colombo@unicatt.it http:laculturasottile.wordpress.com http://mediageneration.wordpress.com