The mediatization of situations

19.03.2015

Article by coordinator of the priority program Friedrich Krotz published in "MedienJournal"

The article "Die Mediatisierung von Situationen und weitere Herausforderungen für die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Forschung" by Friedrich Krotz has been published in the issue 4/2014 of MedienJournal, the periodical of the Austrian Society of Communication (ÖGK).

Abstract: Since nearly two decades, the concept of Mediatization is a topic in Communication and Media studies. This paper at first makes clear with some examples what type of developments are described and theoretically grasped as "becoming mediatized". Then, the specific perspective of Mediatization research is explained, implicitly compared with traditional Communication Studies: integrated actual, historical and critical research, process orientation, interaction with other long term developments ("meta processes") like globalization etc., research oriented at the perspective of the individual instead of media centric orientation. On the base of this, some concepts are explained that have been helpful for Mediatization research and may be seen as helpful for Communication Studies in general: The differentiated understanding of communication and media, the concept of social worlds of Symbolic Interaction Theory, the necessity of a concept of a communicative subject and others.