A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Family relations : Emotional overload (2022)

Räisä, T. (2022). Family relations : Emotional overload. In K. Kopecka-Piech, & M. Sobiech (Eds.), Mediatisation of Emotional Life (pp. 151-167). Routledge. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003254287-13

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Räisä, Tiina

Parent publication: Mediatisation of Emotional Life

Parent publication editors: Kopecka-Piech, Katarzyna; Sobiech, Mateusz

ISBN: 978-1-032-18106-6

eISBN: 978-1-003-25428-7

Journal or series: Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies

Publication year: 2022

Pages range: 151-167

Number of pages in the book: 280

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: Abingdon

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003254287-13

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/82142

Abstract

This chapter explores the process of mediatisation with an institutional and bottom-up approach to mediated family communication. For this empirical study two sets of data were collected with the messaging application WhatsApp among six Finnish families, including parents and children. When the data were analysed using grounded theory, four categories of family communication emerged: those of the practical family, the dispersed family, the entertainment-oriented family and the loving family. In my discussion of the specific features of contemporary, mediated family communication, I propose the concept of digital family talk, that is an internalised way of interacting observed in families when they use media and especially private chats for their everyday conversation. The mediatised family is found to be a highly contradictory construct that is adapting its practices to a prevailing, emotional media logic. Such a dependency is making the smallest unit in society, the family quite vulnerable to the dominance and the constantly shifting prerequisites of media. Mediatisation is a transformative process that may even be levelling out the differences and increasing the similarities between families around the world.

Keywords: families; family life; family relations; interpersonal communication; emotions; mediasation; communications technology; instant messaging clients

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2022

JUFO rating: 3