Making sense of media: a non-media-centric and open-ended approach to the study of media-related experiences and perceptions

The project takes a novel approach to the study of media-related experiences and perceptions. It argues that to fully grasp the complexities of the ways people experience, think, and feel about media, we have to situate the study of media-related experiences and sentiments within a wider sociocultural and political context. In other words, to understand how people experience, think and feel about media, we have to understand how people make sense of their own life, society and politics. To do so, a holistic, non-media-centric and open-ended, explorative approach to the study of media-related experiences and sentiments is needed. Drawing on the case study of media audiences in the Baltic countries of Latvia and Estonia, the project seeks to advance the existing conceptualisations of the work of meaning-making about media and the available methodological toolkit. The ongoing Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine provides a unique opportunity to study the ways people in two ex-Soviet countries bordering Russia experience and make sense of media at the times of geopolitical tension and uncertainty. 20 study participants per country will be asked to submit short written, audio, or video essays on ‘my life’, ‘society’, ‘politics’, and ‘media’ followed by an in-depth interview to further explore the texts of the essays. The project is designed as a pilot study to test the innovative analytical and methodological framework proposed and to identify future research directions.