Stig Hjarvard

The Mediatization of Culture and Society

Chapter 1. Introduction: From Mediation to Mediatization Chapter 2. Mediatization: A New Theoretical Perspective Chapter 3. The Mediatization of Politics: From Party Press to Opinion Industry Chapter 4. The Mediatization of Religion: From the Faith of the Church to the Enchantment of the Media Chapter 5. The Mediatization of Play: From Bricks to Bytes Chapter 6. The Mediatization of Habitus: The Social Character of a New Individualism Chapter 7. Epilogue - Mediatization: Consequences and Policies References Index

Mediatization: Theorizing the Interplay between Media, Culture and Society

In response to Deacon and Stanyer’s article ‘Mediatization: Key Concept or Conceptual Bandwagon?’ we argue that they build their criticism on a simplified methodology. They mistake a media-centered approach for a media-centric one, and they do not capture how mediatization research engages with the complex relationship between changes in media and communication, on the one hand, and changes in various fields of culture and society on the other. We conclude that the emergence of the concept of mediatization is part of a paradigmatic shift within media and communication research.

Mediatization – Empirical perspectives: An introduction to a special issue

In general, the concept of mediatization tries to capture long-term interrelation processes between media change on the one hand and social and cultural change on the other. As institutionalized and technological means of communication, media have become integral to very different contexts of human life. The media are not just neutral instances of mediation: Media like television, radio, newspaper, the web or the mobile phone are in themselves mediators of social and cultural change. Within media and communication studies two strands of research, medium theory and effect research, have in very different ways addressed this ‘influence’ of media on processes of social and cultural change. Medium theory describes socio-cultural change as deeply structured by the advent of a new leading medium, and constructs human history as the succession of oral, scribal, print and electronic cultures (cf. for example, Meyrowitz, 1995). Approaches of media effect research analyze the rather short-term impact of certain media content on the social world (cf. for example, Rosengren, 1994). Both kinds of approaches have contributed to the understanding of the relationship between media, culture and society, but they clearly have some shortcomings. Medium theory conceptualizes the relation between one medium and its socio-cultural influence too directly and neglects questions of media content. Effect research theorizes the influence of certain media contents too directly and neglects questions of media specificity and cultural context. Furthermore, these approaches have not been able to conceptualize a key feature of contemporary culture and society: Media are no longer ‘outside’ society exerting a specific influence or effect on culture and therefore on individuals. In our present media-saturated society media are inside society, part of the very fabric of culture; they have become ‘the cultural air

The mediatisation of religion: Theorising religion, media and social change

Drawing on recent advances in mediatisation theory, the article presents a theoretical framework for understanding the increased interplay between religion and media. The media have become an important, if not primary, source of information about religious issues, and religious information and experiences become moulded according to the demands of popular media genres. As a cultural and social environment, the media have taken over many of the cultural and social functions of the institutionalised religions and provide spiritual guidance, moral orientation, ritual passages and a sense of community and belonging. Furthermore, the article considers the relationship between mediatisation and secularisation at three levels: society, organisation and individual. At the level of society, mediatisation is an integral part of secularisation. At the level of organisation and the individual, mediatisation may both encourage secular practices and beliefs and invite religious imaginations typically of a more subjectivised nature.

From Mediation to Mediatization: The Institutionalization of New Media

Within both scholarly research and wider public debate, profound influence on contemporary cultural and social affairs — positively and negatively — is attributed to new media, such as the internet and mobile phones. New media are regarded as either revolutionizing or significantly transforming culture and society, at both the level of global political power and the level of intimate human relationships. At the macro level of social affairs, Castells (2009) suggests that the internet allows a historically new form of ‘mass selfcommunication’ that may reconfigure the distribution and exercise of power in the network society. At the micro level of social affairs, Turkle (2011) provides a very critical view of new media and emphasizes that social relationships suffer in an online world: ‘The ties we form through the internet are not, in the end, the ties that bind. But they are the ties that preoccupy […] We defend connectivity as a way to be close, even as we effectively hide from each other’ (pp. 280–1). New media are also transforming older forms of mass communication, such as broadcasting and journalism, to the extent that we are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in mediated communication. Deuze (2007) prophesies that ‘journalism as it is, is coming to an end. The boundaries between journalism and other forms of public communication […] are vanishing, the internet makes all other types of news media rather obsolete’ (p. 141).

Online news: between private enterprise and public subsidy

The Nordic countries’ media systems are exemplary of the democratic corporatist model, and newspapers have occupied a very prominent position in the political public sphere supported by wide circulation and a political will to subsidize the press and still keep an arm’s length distance. During past decades, these features have come under pressure due to – among other things – the spread of digital media. In this article, we explore two current structural economic challenges to legacy newspaper organizations in Denmark. The first challenge regards the implementation of subscription on news websites since 2013. The second challenge concerns the revision of the Danish press subsidy law in 2013–2014. The introduction of a ‘platform neutral’ subsidy law could be interpreted as a first step toward rethinking the entire press subsidies system. Taken together, these developments pose serious challenges to the printed press: on the one hand, no viable business model seems ready to replace the old one; on the other hand, a reorientation of the regulatory system, which subsidizes the press, seems under way. Despite the global nature of ongoing transformation (digitalization and commercialization), national particularities continue to influence developments and reflect continued support for the democratic corporatist model.

The Dynamics of Mediatized Conflicts

This chapter critically analyzes the philosophy, doctrine and practice of Influence Activity in defence. Influence Activity refers to a particular form of strategic communication conducted by the military in order to influence attitudes and behaviours through information-based activities. In doctrinal terms, Influence is defined as ‘..the power or ability to affect someone’s beliefs or action or a person or thing with such ability or power’ (MoD, 2009: 88). This ‘power’ is simultaneously conceived of as generating both ‘affect’ – in which the state of a particular scenario or dynamic is altered- and ‘effect’ in which a particular outcome is accomplished (see Morriss, 2002). Here, I examine the philosophy and practice of Influence and its associated ‘effects’ through an examination of the three embedded logics that frame and govern it: military logic (a Clausewitzian orientation to war); marketing logic (an orientation marketing principles); and media logic. These logics are particularly revealing of an encompassing military orientation to war that is both responding and contributing to the conditions in which war is performed, but also directly impacting upon how it is performed; in other words, war that is mediatized. This is explored here not only in relation to why ‘influence’ has assumed such centrality in the military’s understanding of war and defence, but also how influence is conceived and measured. In this latter regard, I argue that media (forms, ‘audiences’ and ‘effects’) are positioned in relatively idealistic terms as tangible, measurable and controllable, which, when combined with the application of ‘logics’, has a direct bearing on what, when and how media is utilized and understood. More specifically, I argue that this combination of logics and idealism is suggestive of an ‘imagining’ of (media) influence that directly relates to, and is framed by a fetishization of media (communication and effects). It is when this ‘imagining’ ‘feeds back’ into the performance of war and defence practice that we can most vividly locate the processes by which it becomes mediatized. In short, by problematizing the logics and conceptualization of influence, this chapter explores why and how the transformative power of media has become integral to war and the extent to which this is also transformative of the organization and implementation of defence politics and war itself. I start by locating the doctrine of Influence Activities within the overall framework of the strategic communications.

When media of a small nation argue for war

In this comparative analysis of editorial columns in Danish newspapers, we analyze how news media can act as a political voice during times of war. Whereas most studies of media coverage of war focus on one specific war, this analysis provides empirically and theoretically grounded conclusions across three wars: Afghanistan 2001–, Iraq 2003–2007, and Libya 2011. The analysis focuses on the interpretative frames that are mobilized concerning the cause of conflict, the legitimacy of war, and the rationales for deploying Danish troops. Various models of elite–media relationships are considered and modified from a theoretical perspective in order to take into account the particular problems involved for a small nation going to war. The analysis largely confirms the influence of elite consensus or dissensus on media coverage. Other influential factors include the media system and the semi-autonomous status of newspapers as an elite voice competing with other opinion-making elites.

Chapter 2 Attitudes: Tendencies and Variations

This chapter presents an overview of religiosity and attitudes to religious diversity in media and other public spaces based on a cross-Scandinavian survey conducted in 2015. Although Scandinavians ...

The Logics of the Media and the Mediatized Conditions of Social Interaction

The notion of ‘media logics’ is useful for understanding the processes of mediatization and the ways in which media come to influence communication and social interaction in various domains of society. Media logics are the combined technological, aesthetic, and institutional modus operandi of the media and logics may in a general sociological vocabulary be understood as the rules and resources that govern a particular institutional domain. Media logics do‚ however‚ rarely exert their influence in isolation. We need to consider the media’s influence on an aggregate level and not only at the level of the individual media and its particular logics. Mediatization involves cultural and social processes in which logics of both media and other institutions are interacting and adapting to each other and through these processes a particular configuration of logics are established within an institutional domain. Such configurations condition, but do not determine communication and social interaction. Within a particular institution such as politics or education‚ the available media repertoire inserts various dynamics to communication and social interaction‚ and these dynamics represent the mediatized conditions of communication and social interaction.