Study Group "The Media" (until 2012)

The study group ‘The Media’ was founded to examine the role of the media in the interaction of religion and politics and how interdisciplinary networking within the Cluster can contribute to investigating this topic. The study group deliberately adopts both diachronic and synchronic perspectives so that a recent concept like ‘the mass media’, for example, can function as a reference point for constructive discussion on topics as wide-ranging as Hellenistic coin production and Internet social networking. Another point of intensive discussion is how our understanding of the media interacts with our understanding of historical sources.

The study group is currently investigating a variety of historical media in terms of four categories: instruments of communication (e. g. language), media technologies (e. g. printing), media institutions (e. g. publishing houses) and media products (e. g. books). With critical reference to Sigfried J. Schmidt/Emeritus Prof., University of Münster, further consideration is to be given to the question of whether historical constants such as socialisation processes in terms of disciplining perception can be identified in the development of new media.