Katarzyna Kopecka-Piech

The article determines whether media technology management strategies are being implemented in the homes of Polish families, and what effects they may have. A total of 94 families were examined through four research methods: in-depth interviews with all family members, family diary protocols, individual interviews, and an online questionnaire survey of family representatives. The families were placed into four categories according to their attitude to technology management and daily practices: unconscious and passive, conscious and passive, conscious and ineffective, and conscious and effective. Four main types of media technology management strategies were considered: technology oriented, media content oriented, time oriented, and usage mode oriented. Most surveyed families do not manage to achieve high digital well-being due to a lack of awareness and/or willingness to manage technologies at home, or the ineffectiveness of attempts to reduce them. Conscious and effective families, being minority, consistently pursue diverse and mixed media management strategies.

The aim of the article is to answer the question about the nature of the mediatization of everyday life which occurs through mobile media: smartphones and tablets and dedicated applications. Many spheres of peoples lives is subject to mobile mediatization and its regimes. Handheld devices accompany the increasingly wider spectrum of our activity. At the same time different activities intersect, overlap, and therefore hybridizes. It leads to a situation in which it is difficult to separate them from each other. Crossing applications (e.g. through their functionality or content) support this situation. The mediatization takes place through applicatization of everyday life. It can be analyzed using the concepts of textures and regimes of mediatization formulated by André Jansson. Selected areas of everyday human activity was tested using this tool.
At the same time three textures of applicatized mobile communication, corresponding to different regimes: hybridization, multi-tasking and sharing were isolated and analyzed. The context of commercialization was included and a critical picture of the phenomena was highlighted.
 

The user is king!? The status of the social browser-based games in the face of personalization

The purpose of this article is to present the status of the social browser-based games users in the face of the algorithmization, personalization and customization of new media. The answer to the question posed in the title has been granted on the basis of the conclusions of the empirical research conducted in the Polish company producing games. This article presents a brief history of the user participation in games production, from modding to providing data for media products and services development. The profile of the working player and characterization of playbour is delivered and the quasi-intervention in the media product is described. The article also depicts the nature of the broader phenomena of the culture of work through consumption. Quasi-interventionist nature of the user activity is part of a problem of new media users ignorance, in terms of their engagement in creation of the offered goods. Ethical questions regarding restrictions that affect a growing group of users are emerging from the analysis also.

 

The contemporary processes of media changes are occurring extremely fast. New technologies, business models, cultural patterns, social processes, regulatory changes necessitate modifications in the management of the media. Media innovation management is a key issue emerging particularly in the case of new media. The aim of the article is to present a typology of media innovations and to identify examples of each type. The analysis leads to the conclusion that innovation is now the biggest challenge to media producers and managers of media organizations. The study includes both old and new media, in particular the converging media. The article initiates the application of the innovation theory to media studies.