Culturalizing mediatization

Johan Fornäs

pp. 38-53

in: Andreas Hepp, Friedrich Krotz (eds), Mediatized worlds, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

The term "mediation" denotes that something functions as a linking device between different entities. Media are socially organized technologies made for being used in the practices of communication that are prime examples of such mediating processes. "Mediatization" refers to some kind of historical process whereby such media "increasingly come to saturate society, culture, identities and everyday life" (Fornas, 1995, p. 1).¹ However, there are many difficulties hidden in this concept of mediatization. Some of these issues will be identified and discussed here, in an effort to help clarify how the idea of mediatization can be made useful for transdisciplinary studies of contem-porary media processes, with a focus on the value of revitalizing culturally oriented approaches.