Overview
At the core of research and teaching at Erlangen are media and communication systems, understood as complex networks of
- acting actors who intellectually create, produce, distribute, and receive media and messages
- media as artifacts for transport, storage and use of messages as well as a sign and symbol system in its own right
- Technologies and infrastructures for the production and distribution of these media and for the circulation of messages
- organizational services for the integration and coordination of processes based on the division of labor
- Institutions, understood as negotiable sets of rules or usages that promote or limit the behavior of the acting actors and thus significantly influence the functionality of a concrete media and communication system.
Media and communication systems are embedded in society and culture and shaped by historical developments.
The work in Erlangen includes approaches from the social sciences as well as the humanities. The institute investigates socially relevant, man-made phenomena in the form of material artifacts (media, infrastructures, technologies), institutions (e.g. regulation, usages) and behaviors (e.g. media use, decisions) and the interconnections between them.
The work is necessarily empirical: Phenomena and problems that actually exist in media-using societies are examined, and attempts are made to describe, explain and design them.
Detailed descriptions of our research topics you will find on the page Forschungsbereiche (also in English).
We have contributions in English as well as in other languages.
For information about individual members of our team visit the team page.
Our programs are all in German language.