Mediatization: Rethinking the question of media power

• This chapter presents mediatization of politics as a process of mediainduced societal change that goes beyond the visible face of media power. Three questions are central to my attempt to rethink the question of media power: the nature of mediatization, its causes, and effects. Five key elements make up the core of my account of the mediatization theory: (1) adaptation as a process of social learning to a changing media environment, (2) the media as constraints on actions; the emergence of powerful and independent media institutions, and (3) the increased media dependency as causes of mediatization, and (4) shifts of power as an effect, and (5) social change as a consequence. The age of television was the background for my original account, relevant first and foremost for the systems world. Today, my conclusion is that the news media have become an integral part of the political institutions, whereupon the mediatization of politics should have reached a final phase. But whereas the process of mediatization may have peaked on the systems level, the mediatization of the lifeworld has only just begun. Consequently, mediatization theory should also today-in the age of the Internet-be a most relevant tool for approaching and rethinking the question of media power. © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Globaliseringsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Globalisation Studies (hsv//eng)

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

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

Keyword

Conceptualization of mediatization

Exchange theory

Media dependency

Media logic

Media power

Mediatization

Mediatization of politics

New institutionalism

Political communication

Societal change

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)