Arne Freya Zillich: Navigating Complex Media Environments

Digital media are an inherent part of everyday life for many people today. The digitization of media allows different functions to be merged on a single device, applications to be used across different devices, and use and device to be decoupled from one another. As a result, digital media environments are characterized by a high degree of complexity, diversity, and dynamics. This increasingly poses a challenge for users in terms of orientation. How and by what means do users orient themselves in complex media environments? What technical and social skills do they need for self-determined use of digital media? How do users know what to disclose about themselves and how to present themselves in complex media environments? The cumulative habilitation thesis provides a theoretical and empirical contribution to answering these questions, referring to technological, industrial, and social orientation options.