User:Chickadee101/Mediatization (media)

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Introduction (copied from Mediatization (media)#Influence of media technologyarticle)

• wordy, need to verify that it outlines every topic brought up in the rest of the article.

Mediatization (or medialization) is a process whereby the mass media influence other sectors of society, including politics, business, culture, entertainment, sport, religion, or education. Mediatization is often understood as a process of change or a trend, similar to globalization and modernization, where the mass media are integrated to an increasing degree into other sectors of the society. Political actors, opinion makers, business organizations, civil society organizations, and others have to adapt their way of communication to a form that suits the needs and preferences of the mass media – the so-called media logic. Any person or organization who want to spread their messages to a larger audience have to adapt their messages and communication style to make it attractive for the mass media.

The media have a major influence not only on public opinion, but also on the structure and processes of political communication, political decision-making and the democratic process. This is not a one-way influence. While the mass media have a profound influence on government and political actors, the politicians are also influencing the media through regulation, negotiation, selective access to information, etc.

The concept of mediatization is still under development and there is no commonly agreed definition of the term. Some theorists reject precise definitions and operationalizations of mediatization, fearing that they would reduce the complexity of the concept and the phenomena it refers to, while others prefer a clear theory that can be tested, refined, or potentially refuted.

The concept of mediatization is seen not as an isolated theory, but as a framework that holds the potential to integrate different theoretical strands, linking micro-level with meso- and macro-level processes and phenomena, and thus contributing to a broader understanding of the role of the media in the transformation of modern societies.

The process of mediatization has been shaped by a technological development from newspapers to radio, television, internet, and interactive social media. Other important influences include changes in organization and economic conditions of the media, such as a growing importance of independent market-driven media, and a decreasing influence of state-sponsored, public service, and partisan media.

The increasing influence of economic market forces is typically seen in trends such as tabloidization and trivialization, while news reporting and political coverage is often reduced to slogans, sound bites, spin, horse race reporting, celebrity scandals, populism, and infotainment.

Origins

• will probably change title to 'history' because 'origins' sounds a little goofy to me.

The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan is sometimes associated with the founding of the field. He proposed that a communication medium itself, not the messages it carries, should be the primary focus of study.

The Hungarian-born sociologist Ernest Manheim was the first to use the German word Mediatisierung to describe social influence of the mass media in a book published in 1933, though without much elaboration on the concept.

The German sociologist Jürgen Habermas also used the German word Mediatisierung in 1981 in his Theory of Communicative Action. This word already existed in the German language with a different meaning (see German mediatisation). It is debated whether Habermas used the word in the old meaning or in the new meaning of media influence. The first appearance of the word mediatization in the English language may be in the English translation of this book.

The Swedish professor of journalism Kent Asp was the first to develop the concept of mediatization to a coherent theory in his seminal dissertation where he investigated the mediatization of politics. His dissertation was published as a book in Swedish in 1986. Kent Asp described the mediatization of political life, by which he meant a process whereby “a political system to a high degree is influenced by and adjusted to the demands of the mass media in their coverage of politics”.

In the tradition of Kent Asp, the Danish media science professor Stig Hjarvard further developed the concept of mediatization and applied it not only to politics but also to other sectors of society, including religion. Hjarvard defined mediatization as a social process whereby the society is saturated and inundated by the media to the extent that the media cannot longer be thought of as separated from other institutions within the society.

The term mediatization has since gained widespread usage in English despite sounding awkward. Mediatization theory is part of a paradigmatic shift in media and communication research. Following the concept of mediation, mediatization has become a major concept for capturing how processes of communication transform society in large-scale relationships.

While the early theory building around mediatization had a strong center in Europe, many American media sociologists and media economists made observations about the effects of commercial mass media competition on news quality, public opinion, and the political processes. For example, David Altheide discussed how media logic distorts political news and John McManus demonstrated how economic competition violates media ethics and makes it difficult for citizens to evaluate the quality of the news. The European theorists readily embraced Altheide's concept of media logic, and the two lines of research are now integrated into one common paradigm.

References (that I want to add)

• Cody, F. (2023). The news event : popular sovereignty in the age of deep mediatization. The University of Chicago Press.
• Comer, J. (2022). Discourses of Global Queer Mobility and the Mediatization of Equality. Taylor & Francis.
• Frandsen, Kirsten. (2020). Sport and Mediatization. Routledge
• Frostenson, M., & Grafström, M. (2022). Mediatisation and the construction of what is morally right and wrong in contemporary business. Media, Culture & Society, 44(3), 532-548. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211048369
• Leong, P. P. Y. (2021). Digital mediatization and the sharpening of Malaysian political contests. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814951883
• Neubauer, T. (2023). Mediatization of the O.J. Simpson Case : From Reality Television to Filmic Adaptation. transcript Verlag.
• Toni G. L. A. van der Meer, Anne C. Kroon, Piet Verhoeven & Jeroen Jonkman (2019) Mediatization and the Disproportionate Attention to Negative News, Journalism Studies, 20:6, 783-803, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2018.1423632