scholarly journals Strong and Weak Forms of Mediatization Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (s1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Ampuja ◽  
Juha Koivisto ◽  
Esa Väliverronen

AbstractDuring recent years, the concept of mediatization has made a strong impact on media and communication studies, and its advocates have attempted to turn it into a refined and central theoretical framework for media research. The present article distinguishes two forms of mediatization theory: a strong form based on the assumption that a ‘media logic’ increasingly determines the actions of different social institutions and groups, and a weak form that questions such a logic, though the latter form emphasizes the key role of the media in social change and singles out mediatization as a central ‘meta-process’ today. Exponents of the weak form have convincingly criticized the notion of media logic. However, the weaker version of mediatization is itself problematic, as its advocates have failed to produce a clear explanatory framework around the concept. We argue that, although the analytical status of mediatization is unclear, fascination with the concept will, in all probability, continue in the years to come, due to the promises of heightened disciplinary coherence and status that this notion has conveyed for media and communication studies.

Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Dwayne Winseck

This article documents a conversation between us that was first published in parallel on our two blogs http://dwmw.wordpress.com and http://fuchs.uti.at/blog. The conversation deals with our assessments of the status of Critical Media and Communication Studies today. We discuss the work of Dallas Smythe, how to study and assess Google, research dimensions of Critical Political Economy of the Media, how important each of these dimensions should be, the role of ideology critique for Critical Political Economy of the Media, the commonalities and differences between Political Economies of the Media and Critical Political Economy of the Media/Critique of the Political Economy of the Media, the role of Karl Marx for Political Economies of the Media, Nicholas Garnham's recent comments on the field of Critical Political Economy of the Media, neoliberalism and capitalist crisis as contexts for Political Economies of the Media. Comments are very welcome on our blogs, URLs to the specific blog postings can be found in the article sections.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Birkner

Mediatization is of the most successful yet most often discussed approaches used in media and communication studies. The issues of media change and societal change are central in this respect, with two traditions having developed, which examine the role of the media in our modern society in different ways (qualitative v quantitative methods). The research focus could be divided between a) changes to communication in humans’ daily lives, for example through smartphones, and b) influences of the mass media in different areas of society such as politics, the economy and sport. The second edition of this book, which has been revised and updated, explains the origins of these approaches, presents key studies and findings on them and discusses their similarities and differences.


Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs

Due to the global capitalist crisis, neoliberalism and the logic of commodification of everything have suffered cracks, fissures and holes. There is a return of the interest in Marx, which requires us to think about the role of Marxism in Media and Communication Studies. This paper contributes to this task by discussing some foundations of contemporary Marxist media and communication studies, including a focus on the renewed interest in Dallas Smythe’s audience commodity category as part of the digital labour debate. Dallas Smythe reminds us of the importance of engagement with Marx’s works for studying the media in capitalism critically. Both Critical Theory and Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication have been criticized for being one-sided. Such interpretations are mainly based on selective readings. They ignore that in both approaches there has been with different weightings a focus on aspects of media commodification, audiences, ideology and alternatives. Critical Theory and Critical Political Economy are complementary and should be combined in Critical Media and Communication Studies today. Dallas Smythe’s notion of the audience commodity has gained new relevance in the debate about corporate Internet services’ exploitation of digital labour. The exploitation of digital labour involves processes of coercion, alienation and appropriation.


Author(s):  
Marco Barros ◽  
Charles-Clemens Rüling

Based on an overview of previous literature on business media, which shows a substantial degree of fragmentation, this chapter proposes an integrative theoretical framework using the concept of media logic defined as the technological, cultural, and organizational features that influence how management ideas are produced, distributed, and consumed. Considering the recent technological changes brought on by social media, the role of business media cannot be understood without considering the effects of transmediality and multimodality. Defined respectively as the movement of content through different types of media, these elements have an important impact on the nature of management ideas. The authors question the predominance of well-bounded ideas in a new technological convergence context with increasing loss of gatekeeping control to user-generated content. They propose that a renewed set of theoretical frameworks and methodological tools will allow business media research to understand the contemporary evolution of management ideas.


Author(s):  
Kjetil Sandvik

Digital media and network communication technology have not changed this setup, but rather have opened the possibility for encountering and experiencing additional types of worlds and performing additional types of spatial practices. Being situated online and being globally networked with the possibility of both synchronous and asynchronous communication, digitally mediated worlds provide possible interactions between users which are radically more independent of time and place than the ones facilitated by older media. From this perspective, the concept of online worlds both challenges and broadens our understanding of how media shape the world and how the media technology creates new social structures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-36
Author(s):  
Anwar Anwar ◽  
Asri Laraswati ◽  
Ridhani Ridhani

This research examines the field of discourse analysis which has popularity in the media field and communication studies. The research is focused on the application of critical discourse analysis (CDA) in Indonesia. This study is especially interested in examining CDA’s variety of approaches. The goal of this review research is to discover and to know the role of CDA in the hidden ideologies in the media of discourse studies. The data in this study is on ten selected article journals to clarify the methods, ways, and to find in which CDA has been used in understanding social and educational phenomena. This study determined three themes in critical discourse analysis application, i.e. economic, political, and social contexts.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asri Laraswati

This research examines the field of discourse analysis which has popularity in the media field and communication studies. The research is focused on the application in 1990s era of Indonesia in critical discourse analysis that is examining a variety of approaches it. The goal of the review research is to discover and to know the role of CDA in the hidden ideologies in media of discourse studies. There are ten article journals to clarify the methods, ways, and finding in which CDA has found in our phenomenon of social and in education. That was found a CDA has been applied whilst presenting a positive drawing for a group of people in their communication.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Birgir Guðmundsson

AbstractThe increased importance of social media platforms and network media logic merging with traditional media logic are a trademark of modern hybrid systems of political communication. This article looks at this development through the media-use by politicians before the 2016 and 2017 parliamentary elections in Iceland. Aggregate results from candidate surveys on the use and perceived importance of different media forms are used to examine the role of the new platform Snapchat in relation to other media, and to highlight the dynamics of the hybrid media system in Iceland. The results show that Snapchat is exploited more by younger politicians and those already using social media platforms. However, in spite of this duality between old and new media, users of traditional platforms still use new media and vice versa. This points to the existance of a delicate operational balance between different media logics, that could change as younger politicians move more centre stage.


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