European Journal of Communication | 2019
Caja Thimm, Mario Anastasiadis and Jessica Einspänner-Pflock (eds), Media Logic(s) Revisited: Modelling the Interplay between Media Institutions, Media Technology and Societal Change
Abstract
What is media logic or media logics? The editors of Media Logic(s): Modelling the Interplay between Media Institutions, Media Technology and Societal Change start the book by reminding their readers of the history of this term. Originally developed by David Altheide and Robert Show, the concept media logic aimed at providing a theoretical framework for explaining the media’s ‘impact on institutions and social behavior’ by focusing on ‘the mass media system of television, radio, and newspapers and its power to influence and even transform society’ (p. 1). Altheide (2011) emphasised that there was an ‘underlying media logic that dominates our increasingly mediated (or mediatized) social order’ (p. 119). Caja Thimm, Mario Anastasiadis and Jessica EinspännerPflock argue that the concept is very useful in explaining changes in societal fields as a result of the rules of a media logic. In their view, however, the emergence of new technologies and their powerful impact necessitate ‘a reconsideration of the media logic concept’ (p. 2). They question the extent to which in the age of fragmentation, we can actually talk about ‘a single mass media logic’ (p. 3). They claim that what we evidence is a variety of media logics. Their edited volume represents an attempt to rethink the concept in light of the technological changes. The book includes the contributions made to a conference on media logics that took place at the University of Bonn in September 2015. Part I, ‘Theorizing Media Logics’, consists of six chapters. Chapter 2 by David L. Altheide focuses on the concept of the media syndrome, which he conceptualises as