Abstract
In view of media technology and convergence-related developments, the media behaviour of adolescents is changing. This has long since ceased to be oriented towards individual end devices and forms of offerings. A strict separation of media spaces and social lifeworld no longer seems appropriate either, since in the course of mediatisation, the social spheres of action of the subjects are expanded into the media, just as everyday life can increasingly be characterised as being permeated by media. This poses a challenge to media education research to develop suitable methodological approaches that take into account the increasingly complex processes of media appropriation. It is necessary to conceive research designs that start with the media practices of the subjects and aim at understanding them instead of only (quantifying) describing them. Using the example of the long-term study Media Convergence Monitoring, this article shows how the new requirements can be met by dovetailing quantitative and qualitative methods. Exemplary results are used to illustrate the importance of the subject's perspective, his or her individual perceptions and sense-making as well as the consistent consideration of life-world references for media appropriation research today.
