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Personal media and implications for theories on media and communication: mediated subjectivities, social networking, creative practices My research interests concern individual mediated practices and interpersonal communication. In the research-project “The social transformation of the Internet III”, we use “personal media” as a concept in contrast to mass media. I emphasise that personal media is not the same as the Internet. Rather the Internet is the technological foundation for both mass media forms and personal media forms. Personal media denote tools for interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, e.g. mobile phones, e-mail, instant messenger, IRC, home-pages, private blogs, online profiles and photo-sharing services. As private individuals use media technologies to create and share personal expressions through digital networks, previous characteristics of mass media as providers of generally accessible information (suggested by e.g. Luhmann, [1996] 2000, Thompson, 1995), are no longer accurate. In an article currently under review, I have suggested a two-dimensional model locating personal media and mass media according to an interactional axis and an institutional/professional-axis: personal media are de-institutionalised/de-professionalized and facilitate mediated interaction, whereas mass media are institutionalized and professionalized, and (still) characterised by asymmetrical interaction. I have thus attempted to contextualise the concepts of personal media and personal communication in relation to mass media and mass communication, but my research focuses on young people in Norway and the social aspects and implications of personal media and communication. The massive amount of research within fields that can be related to the user-led phenomenon and the many concepts being introduced (e.g. my own “personal media”, Axel’s “produsage, produser”, Jean’s focus on vernacular creativity and literacy, as well as the whole web 2.0discourse) clearly indicates that this is perceived to be an important area of research. I am interested in how these emerging practices are both a cause and effect of the increasing complexity of post-traditional life. In my work I have concomitantly argued that socially competent subjects manage to successfully juggle between online and offline arenas of social interaction. In order to understand the social subjects of post-traditional societies, it is necessary to consider the interdependent yet sometimes independent relationships between online and offline forms of communication. I am further interested in how the media development increasingly seem to blur the boundaries between what is regarded as public and what is regarded as private information, facilitating what John Thompson calls a society of self-disclosure (Thompson, 2005: 38). Roland Barthes connects the blurring boundaries between private and public with the emergence of the photography (Barthes, [1980] 2001: 119-120), whereas Joshua Meyrowitz emphasises that this development is strengthened with electronic broadcasting technology (Meyrowitz, 1986). Digital network media can similarly be seen to intensify these tendencies. More specifically I explore how people choose to present themselves through personal media. Finally I explore creative practices from a userperspective, focusing on what users regard to be interesting digital stories, and how they acquire the technical competences required to create and tell through personal media. BARTHES, R. ([1980] 2001) Det lyse rommet: tanker om fotografiet, Oslo, Pax. LUHMANN, N. ([1996] 2000) The Reality of the Mass Media, Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press. MEYROWITZ, J. (1986) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, New York, N.Y., Oxford University Press. THOMPSON, J. B. (1995) The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media, Cambridge, Polity Press. THOMPSON, J. B. (2005) The New Visibility. Theory, Culture & Society, 22, 31-51. Marika Lüders / [email protected] Department of media and communication, University of Oslo