Four Phases of Mediatization: An Analysis of the Mediatization of Politics

TLDR

The concepts of mediation and mediatization have been used to describe media–politics changes over the past fifty years, yet they are often employed without clear definitions. The article aims to analyze mediated and mediatized politics from a process‑oriented perspective, addressing the lack of process analysis in the concept of mediatization. The study examines the process of mediatization by applying a process‑oriented analytical framework to mediated and mediatized politics. The authors identify four distinct phases of mediatization, showing that as politics becomes more mediatized, the key issue shifts from media independence to the independence of politics and society from the media.

Abstract

Two concepts that have been used to describe the changes with regards to media and politics during the last fifty years are the concepts of mediation and mediatization . However, both these concepts are used more often than they are properly defined. Moreover, there is a lack of analysis of the process of mediatization, although the concept as such denotes a process.Thus the purpose of this article is to analyze the concepts of mediated and mediatized politics from a process-oriented perspective. The article argues that mediatization is a multidimensional and inherently process-oriented concept and that it is possible to make a distinction between four phases of mediatization. Each of these phases is analyzed.The conclusion is that as politics becomes increasingly mediatized, the important question no longer is related to the independence of the media from politics and society. The important question becomes the independence of politics and society from the media.