Culturalizing mediatization

• Mediatization has now been revived as a key concept in media studies, mainly from social sciences perspectives. This paper argues for the value of revitalizing more culturally-oriented approaches to this concept. (1) First, definitional problems are analyzed, hinting at how a cultural perspective focusing on signifying practices of meaning-making may help identifying key ‘if’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ issues of interpreting mediatization as an historical process. The idea of ‘a media age’ is scrutinized, based on a tension between conceiving mediatization as a long-term process or as a dateable historic event. This leads to proposing a model of different levels and kinds of mediatization, making use of cultural theory. (2) Second, mediatization is related to process concepts such as modernization, lifeworld colonization and reflexivity. Mediatization discourse is compared to parallel discourses on culturalization, since these two process concepts are particularly interdependent, if culture is defined as signifying practice, and media are technologies of culture. Cultural perspectives should therefore also be highly useful to mediatization theory. The meaning of culture in relation to society is discussed, arguing for a fruitful way to interrelate the two, based on a combination of cultural studies and Paul Ricoeur’s critical hermeneutics. (3) Third, the contested genealogy of the concept of mediatization is discussed, emphasizing unfortunately repressed routes through cultural research and pointing at a need to reconnect to some anthropologically and hermeneutically inspired theorizations in the early 1990s. This shows how mediatization discourse always developed in the interface between media studies and other branches of the humanities and social sciences, with a particular affinity to cultural theory. Strategic considerations end in a pledge for continued transdisciplinary dialogue as the best means for understanding mediatization today, and a promising opportunity to productively combine social and cultural perspectives.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

media

communication

mediatisation

modernity

culture

cultural studies

history

Kritisk kulturteori

Critical and Cultural Theory

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kap (ämneskategori)