Affiliation:
1. University of Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany
2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N 6N5, Canada
Abstract
Abstract
Mediatization remains a key concept for theorizing how our ever-evolving and intensifying media and communications environment underwrites and (re)constructs our social world, yet the socio-ecological effects of mediatization processes remain relatively unacknowledged within this research field. However, mediatization must be conceptualized as a cogent process whose impact extends beyond the confines of the “media environment” to the natural environment. We make this argument by reviewing how three dominant traditions of mediatization scholarship: (a) institutionalist, (b) cultural/social constructivist, and (c) materialist conceptualize “the environment.” We argue that scholars rarely acknowledge the materialist dimension of mediatization despite it being a fundamental aspect of mediatization processes. Consequently, we bring discourse surrounding the materiality of mediatization to the fore by drawing on theories of materiality from media and communication studies in general and highlighting three material dimensions of mediatization processes in particular: (a) resources, (b) energy, and (c) waste. In doing so, we make explicit the implicit material dimensions of mediatization processes that have been largely overlooked but are directly linked to how we understand, theorize and react to the societal, cultural, economic, environmental transformations brought about by media.
Funder
ZeMKI
Central Research Development Fund
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics,Communication
Cited by
7 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献