Connecting media, generation and memory
| Autor | Azevedo, Celiana |
| Páginas | 635-646 |
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Since the work written by Mannheim, Problem of the generations (1952), the category of generation has followed a long path through the various fields of Social Sciences to get, more recently, to the studies of media through Aroldi and Colombo (2007). In this line of study, people belonging to the same generation cannot be identified only by sociodemographic aspects such as age, gender, education or occupation, but also by a series of other factors that coexist with each other. In addition to differences that could be explained by personal and lifestyle choices, there is a common point resulting from the fact that people share the same cultural, social and historical environment as well as have very similar experiences related to the media, through the consumption of their content and access to technology.
In this process, we highlight the media as an element of special importance and the main point of analysis in this study: "media play different roles at different moments of this social construction of a shared identity, and that these roles are strongly affected by a lot of variables, both socio-cultural and technological" (Aroldi, 2011: 52). Individuais who shared the same media content develop individual consciences, which act as forms of socialization defined by Aroldi and Columbus (2007) as Gestalt: a peculiar way to notice, to interpret and to evalúate social situations, historical and cultural phenomena.
Therefore, the media play a significant role in this process where historical memories and the media are closely linked. Newspapers, televisión programs, movies, books, magazines, among others, can be a reference for a whole generation.
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Individual experiences can be shared and identified by people who have never met, but who have experienced similar situations, even if in different contexts.
Thus, in addition to aspects related to the particular characteristics of each individual, there is also the influence of so-called "media biography", when the experience that people have with the media, which include the historical development of the media system, innovation and diffusion of the information and communication technologies and the media producís can influence the concept of generational identity.
This empirical work is based on the reports of people who were born between 1940 and 1952, with the objective of trying to understand qualitatively if individuais belonging to the same age group, but with different trajectories of life, are able to identify themselves as belonging to the same generation. We also try to understand how these people use the media as a tool for the construction of the collective identity. Thus, we intend to discuss media, generation, memory and, more specifically, how this relationship may influence the construction of a generational identity (Aroldi, 2011).
From the collection of the data analysed in this article, we used the methodology known as the focus group. The majority of the authorsagrees that the main advantage of this approach is the interaction of the interviewees with the aim of generating information (Kitzinger, 1995; Morgan, 1996; Merton et al. , 1990). According to David Carey (1996: 226) focus group can be understood as an imprecise technique which consists of "a semi-structured group session moderated by a leader, held in an informal place with the purpose of collecting data on a specific topic".David Morgan (Morgan, 1996: 130) defines this methodology from three main components: "first, as a method of research with the objective of generating content; second, the interaction in the discussion group is the source of such information; and third, this methodology allows the researcher maintain an active role in mediating the discussion". This qualitative methodology is particularly useful to reflect on social and cultural realities, because we can access the experiences, meanings, understandings, as well as the attitudes, opinions, knowledge and beliefs. Kitzinger (1995) summarizes the essential function of this technique:
The idea behind the focus group method is that this process can help people explore and clarify their views more easily than in an individual interview. When the dynamic of the group works well, the participants work together with the researcher, leading the search for a new, and often unexpected, direction (p. 229).
This methodology was chosen to act as an efficient way to stimulate the process of "remember", because the memories were easily and mutually induced during the session. Then, the open-ended questions and the possibility to express themselves freely produced information that would otherwise be difficult to achieve. The data collection was carried out in a Retirement Home, where five of the six interviewees reside, being the exception the man of 66 years.. We analysedand
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interpreted their memories of historical and social events in the years 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990, chosen by corresponding to the periods of childhood and when they were still in the labour market, in addition to being periods of important events in the recent history Portuguese. We take into account their paths of life and personal experiences, as well as their connections with the media.
We have been careful not only to speech produced by the interviewees, but also the possible gestures and changes in tone of voice that could reveal significant informationThe discussion lasted an hour and a half and was organized from five topics: (a) brief explanation of the reasons for the research; (b) presentation of participants; (c) memories and representations of decades of 1960 and 1970; (d) Memories and representations of decades of 1980 and 1990; (e) formulation of the idea of generational unit. The questions that comprised the questionnaires were developed with the objective of exploring fundamental questions such as: historical experience, cultural repertoires, biographical experience, social atmosphere in which they lived, consumption of media content, discourses of identity.
The áudio was recorded, transcribed and, for analysis of the information, was used a computer program that allowed for the identification and classification of patterns. Considering the importance of understanding the individual perspectives of each of the issues addressed, was applied a second questionnaire that provided additional information and some characteristics of their lives today related to the consumption of media content. The discussion was made from the point of view of people who have participated in this work. Therefore, we seek heterogeneity for the research and, consequently, we try to work with a group with members with diverse profiles. This group was made taking into account, in addition to age, other aspects such as: geographical location (people who lived in big cities and in small towns); gender (2 men and 4 women); highest level of Education; and finally, people who have spent their youth in Portugal.
Table 1: Characteristics offocus groups
To understand the concept of generation we must consider two distinct perspectives, but that many times are overlapped (Loos et al. , 2012): a) Generation understood as a specific period of life, such as, be retired for example; b) Generation
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understood as an age cohort, which indicates that all people born between two specific periods of time belong to a specific generation. However, Edmunds and Turner (2005) give a more complex definition when they said that the generation is "an age cohort that comes to...
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