Now for the media habitus: The media habitus is an incorporated disposition. Kommer describes the family as a space where this disposition is [] acquired While Kommer. researched adolescents, the 3 to 6 year old children in our research are still in the phase of the primary family education. Thus we assumed that the Habitus is not developed completely, but is developing and can thus be observed while developing.
Our research showed that the economic capital is [] not essential for the media habitus. Nearly all children have nearly all media available. But the availability of media does not determine the utilisation. There are, for example, children with quite a few books in their rooms, where the books are more or less used to frame the TV.
More important seems to be the [] cultural capital of the parents – and restrictions, that are connected with the cultural capital of the parents. The taste parents express in their selection of media appears to be important. From the kids perspective, this is not connected with content, but with devices.
In some cases, the incorporation of the cultural capital appears inconsistent. The children from families where book - devices are most important reproduce their parents cultural capital by stating negative judgements about TV. Still, the children want to watch TV. An important point for the children is, that they can operate TV sets, but they can not read. This difference between parents expectations and children’s practices is expressed by the children. In other terms: They are aware of that difference. Thus this difference might contribute to the personalty development and the development of media literacy. At the same time, it might indicate the process of the incorporation of the cultural capital. This is supported by the fact that these children tend to justify their media consumption, while others don't. Additionally, these children prefer photography – and not video.
In our research, differences between children could be shown in terms of objectified cultural capital. In terms of content, the children mainly referred to content that is suggested to them by their parents, not to content that is suggested by friends. But the children do not use differences connected with content to create profit from distinctions. A higher rank based on objectified cultural capital is created by the devices: large TVs, lots of CDs etc. Additionally, quite a few children expressed a kind of saturation concerning content. They most often have a lot of content available, while they regard only a very little bit as important. The selection of the content is decided by parents mainly. Thus the incorporation of the objectified cultural capital is not self controlled, but other controlled.
Finally, the children reported an interesting ambivalence: While children are most often allowed to decide about their book consumption, they are not able to. They are able to decide about their TV consumption, but they are not allowed to.
To conclude: the taste as an expression of the media habitus is not connected with content mainly, but with devices. And 3-6 year old children already express a media habitus, but it appears not to be as set as with adolescents.