A dialogue on domestication

In this dialogue, David Morley and Maren Hartmann talk about domestication – the history of the concept, some of its core elements, but also particularly the question of the relevance of older and newer approaches to audiences and their appropriation of media, as both technology and content. As one of the founders of a cultural studies-oriented strand of audience research and also one of the original researchers on the initial domestication project, Morley is able to draw on a broad range of approaches and material. His reflections include questions about the gendered relationships in households, about growing up with specific media, but also about notions of home, questions of globalisation and many more. Most importantly, he is able to reflect on developments in media studies over the years. In this dialogue, both also draw on their own media experiences, while also using and questioning theoretical approaches from within, but also those only marginally related to the domestication concept. Originally planned as an interview, it became a conversation about television viewing today, about the material aspects of media infrastructures and how COVID might have changed the questions we need to research today.