The phenomena of mediated communication are closely linked to developments in communication media. For each socio-technical and media innovation (e.g. the Web, instant messaging, mobile communications, etc.), it is necessary to consider the way in which the broadcast medium shapes exchanges, as well as the way in which individuals appropriate them, integrate them into previous practices or develop specific uses, in particular new relationships to knowledge or information. The development of socio-technical communication systems cannot be considered in isolation from the practices of their users.
Consequently, research in this area focuses, simultaneously or alternatively, on the 'technical' logic of designers, taking into account the semio-technical constraints of new media and the way in which they influence the communication process, and/or on the logic of uses, considering the way in which individuals develop their own media experience and practice.
Current research into emerging media from the point of view of the effects of the broadcasting device is looking at the communicative consequences of the possibilities offered for individualising mass media (particularly in the context of Web 2.0), seeking to understand how the characteristics of these media reconfigure journalistic standards and practices or lead to a new structuring of organisations through the construction of virtual communities. As a result, although this work focuses on the design dimension, it also raises the question, at the end of the chain, of how content configured in this way is received.
Research into the logic of use examines the way in which users construct knowledge from the content conveyed by these emerging media. This research also takes account of the design dimension by seeking to see, particularly through the semio-cognitive approach, how the semiotic characteristics of the media devices used contribute to the construction of this knowledge. An analysis of social uses and reception practices also makes it possible to take into account the way in which users construct their relationship with others and with the world via the language, texts and media narratives that they consume and appropriate. The aim is to study the modalities and variations in the actual practices of so-called ordinary reception and reading.