Values are central concepts across all social sciences. Communication and media research, however, has not systematically contributed to the field. Merja Mahrt addresses questions on the relationship between mediated value patterns and values of the audience. What role do values play in selective exposure? How are genre and channel preferences intertwined with individual values? What changes does the drastic expansion of a media system bring about? The author analyzes large-scale representative surveys, covering German media users from 1986 to 2007. She finds patterns linking social and materialist values with preferences and usages of print and electronic media. Implications for the role of values in behavior and in media planning are discussed.
This book is essential reading for researchers and students from the social sciences, in particular communication and media sciences, interested in a deeper understanding of values.

Vorwort
An Analysis of Social and Materialist Values of Media Users in Germany

Autorentext
Merja Mahrt is a research associate at the Department of Social Sciences at Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf. Her research interests include social settings, functions and effects of mass communication.

Zusammenfassung
Values of German media users, 1986-2007 Values have been discussed in connection to the changes brought to the German TV landscape since the introduction of the dual system in 1984. Yet, on such occurrences arguments have rarely, if at all, been based on reliable information about differences in televised values. Nor have values of the audience of channels or genres been considered. This study offers a starting point for such an endeavor, focusing on the role values play for people's media choices. In a theoretical overview, values are situated in a framework of overlapping spheres that influence people in the adoption of values. Social learning is the main mechanism behind this process of socialization. Values define what is desirable or not and how one should behave in a given situation according to the rules of one's society. As stable basic traits close to an individual's personality, values play a part in the building of motives that finally result in behavior. With regard to media, a well-established gratification of media use is the reinforcement of one's own values and worldviews. Based on the finding that mediated value patterns differ across outlets and types of content, I assume that different values should lead people do prefer different media over others.

Inhalt
What Are Values?.- Aim and Scope of the Study.- Audience Values and Media Use.- Values and Media Use among the Highly Educated.- Values and Genre Preferences.- Channel Loyalty and Genre Preferences.- Conclusion.