Abstract
Mediatization has become a vibrant topic in media and communication research and has led to a paradigmatic shift discussing and interrelating processes of socio-cultural with media-communicative change. With Mediatized Worlds, the editors Hepp and Krotz fruitfully connect mediatization with perspectives on everyday lifeworlds in order to grasp dialectically how the omnipresence of the media has shaped and transformed everyday lives and vice versa. Theoretically, this endeavour is convincingly grounded by the editors in social phenomenology and symbolic interactionism, paying particular attention to the media’s consequences on social practices and processes of cultural meaning-making.
The book has emerged as outcome of a conference in Bremen in April 2011. It brings together renowned scholars from the main fields of media and communication research in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries; 13 out of 24 authors are or were members of the priority programme ‘Mediatized Worlds’ based in Bremen.
The book attempts to present Mediatized Worlds as anchored not only in public and political spheres but also in private lifeworlds which are studied from a mostly qualitative perspective. However, the volume does not solely present empirical findings but also offers theoretical reflections on mediatization and provides a historical framing of these ‘meta-processes’.
The volume is organized in 18 chapters, including the introduction, and is divided into six parts. The first part on ‘Rethinking Mediatization’ starts with a chapter by Lundby on ‘Mediatized Stories in Mediatized Worlds’. Lundby presents findings from communication practices from youths involved in a digital storytelling project in Norway. Fornäs’ account of ‘Culturalizing Mediatization’ pleads for a ‘revitalization of cultural concepts’, while Couldry laments the lack of social ontology in relation to media studies. Finally, Krotz discusses and ‘rethinks’ the concepts of ‘Media, Mediatization and Mediatized Worlds’ and understands mediatization as a process related to the social construction of the world. ‘Rethinking Mediatization’, therefore, prepares the ground for the further elaboration of Mediatized Worlds as it introduces general reflections on these authors’ previous writings. All of them spell out the connection between the idea of mediatization and other approaches of social theory, like Bourdieu’s field theory (Couldry) or the inspiring use of anthropological and hermeneutical approaches (Fornäs), to offer new perspectives on mediatization.
The second part of the volume discusses the intersections of ‘Mediatization and New Media’. Steinmaurer provides a contextualization of new media. By diachronically framing communication technologies from then and now, he questions the singularity of digital media. Another thought-provoking chapter is provided by Miller. He argues from an institutional perspective for the integration of technology into the conceptualization of mediatization which could shed light on new media practices of youths. Hjarvard closes this section by tracing the trajectory ‘from Mediation to Mediatization’. He focuses on how new media transform social practices of interaction and lead towards their institutionalization. Taken together, the first and second parts of this volume comprise the ‘big heads’ of the not yet announced ‘mediatization turn’ who emphasize why mediatization should matter.
‘Mediatized Communities’ are discussed in the third part of the book, which fleshes out the theoretical ideas presented in the first part by presenting qualitative case-studies. Knoblauch’s account of Pope Benedict’s visit in Berlin illustrates with visual material the way mediatization has been a major process in transforming religion. Christensen analyses in her chapter the social practices of migrant communities in Sweden and explores by ethnographic means new forms of ‘mediatized cosmopolitanism’ through technology and place. The chapter by Hepp, Berg and Roitsch demonstrates how mediatization changes processes of communicative networking and corresponding communitizations for the individual, referring to Weber’s understanding of ‘Vergemeinschaftung’. Their methodological approach of ‘contextualized network analysis’ seems particularly promising.
The fourth part is on ‘Mediatization and Private Life’: Deuze takes up the methodological reflections and tackles in his piece the paradox that the omnipresence of media resulted in its invisibility. Storey and McDonald present in their empirically well-founded project, ‘Media Love: Intimacy in Mediatized Worlds’, the changes in romance and highlight the importance of individual agency. ‘The Meaning of Home in the Context of Digitization, Mobilization and Mediatization’ is analysed by Peil and Röser who focus on changes in the domestic lifeworlds of the home which remains the main location of media appropriation.
The fifth part reflects on ‘Mediatization and Organizational Contexts’. Thimm, Dang-Anh and Einspänner investigate the structures and strategies of discursive participation. Extracts from Twitter communication and graphs help them to illustrate the mediatization of politics. Passoth, Sutter and Wehner provide a thoughtful analysis of changes in our understanding of the audience by focusing on software-based data allocation as part of mediatization. Breiter dedicates a chapter to the increasing relevance of digital media in communicative processes. He exemplifies schools as mediatized worlds and differentiates his findings on micro, meso and macro levels of educational governance.
In the concluding chapter, Schofield Clark argues for a methodological strengthening of mediatization and a closer relation of the field to critical and cultural studies. Furthermore, she advocates for a pragmatic and activist-inclusive approach, thereby supporting Hepp and Kortz’s statement that media change has consequences in the everyday lives of the population.
The merit of the book is to offer a new access to questions of mediatization via their grounding in a socio-phenomenological approach. However, the focus of Mediatized Worlds still seems to be a bit fragile as the majority of articles grapples with the larger concept of ‘mediatization’. This becomes obvious in parts I and II where 8 of 18 chapters focus particularly on a historical conceptualization and a theoretical reflection. This seems to be reflected in the selection of papers which are nearly exclusively authored by those scholars influential in the overall mediatization debate. As the priority programme Mediatized Worlds comprises many projects, it seems to be a pity not to have included more research by junior scholars.
However, what the various chapters promise is the potential that Mediatized Worlds holds for the study of media and social change in general. Grounding mediatized worlds in lifeworlds is inspiring and convincing, even if a strong methodological approach to researching these lifeworlds is still needed. In some chapters (e.g. 5, 6, 9, 11, 13 and 15), this perspective works out particularly well which is illustrated by visual material, media diaries, photographs, tables, figures and interview transcripts.
It would be fruitful for further studies to strengthen cross-disciplinary approaches. They are alluded to and referred to in many ways throughout the book, for example, media anthropology; however, this is still rarely put into practice. Besides the lengthy conceptual debates in the first part, this volume will be an insightful read for all social scientists and media activists interested in mediatization and social change.