Review: Jens Loenhoff & H. Walter Schmitz (Eds.) (2015). Telekommunikation gegen Isolation. Kommunikationswissenschaftliche Studien aus einem Modellprojekt in einer Klinik [Telecommunication Against Isolation: Communication Studies Based on a Clinical Pilot Project]

Abstract

The collection "Telecommunication Against Isolation" brings together eight contributions based on a pivotal project carried out at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany (campus and clinical center) using ethnographic and empirical communications data. This volume documents the results of the first study, focusing on the development and evaluation of a model for videoconferencing between isolated children suffering from cancer and their families and friends, as well as the results of the following interactional analysis exploring this technically mediated multimodal form of communication. Although an appropriate embedding of the results in the current epistemological and methodological discussion is missing to an extent, especially with regard to ethnographical concerns, the collection represents an outstanding contribution to a research area that has received little consideration as yet. This contribution is therefore a pioneering work in the field of videoconferencing as a distinct form of communication.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1602197