Mediatization: theorizing the interplay between media, culture and society

Abstract

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.