Making sense of screen-based media : The uses and readings of television, computer games, and Internet among Swedish young people

This chapter aims to put the reception of media content, the interaction between text and receiver, into a wider context by drawing special attention to how the screen-based media, television and computers (with regard to computer games and the Internet), are used in daily life and to the meaning-making practices discernible in the readings of these media. Besides the focus on content, an additional aim is to explore how various media uses and the meanings attached to media, their content and use, are an outcome of a constant mutual interplay between the individual, his or her private settings, experiences, attitudes, and the wider culture and society. Throughout the chapter, the embeddedness of media in children's and adolescents' daily lives becomes evident. In attempting to describe how these are closely intertwined, it is necessary to acknowledge the multiple ways in which young people encounter and appropriate media in different contexts. And this insight is best given by the children themselves. Thus, the use of media is a situated activity (including different types of access and skills) in daily life; it is an integral part of daily routines, of their spatial and temporal flows. These encounters with media are also reflected upon by the individual and elaborated in these contexts and flows.