Essay Example on Theories of Mediation and Mediatization

Theories of mediation and mediatization state that the media technology and the industry of communication proliferate into social spheres such as consumption, religion, and politics (Morgan, 2011). Mediation refers to communication via a medium, the intervention of which can affect both the message and the relationship between sender and receiver (Lunt and Livingstone, 2016). By contrast, mediatization refers to a more long-lasting process, whereby social and cultural institutions and modes of interaction are changed as a consequence of the growth of the media's influence. Therefore, mediatization is understood to be a modern example of mediation. It is the increased media presence in identity constructions because culture is more and more dependent on communication media (Morgan, 2011). Whether mediatization has positive or negative consequences cannot be determined in general terms; it is a concrete, analytical question that needs to be addressed regarding specific contexts, where the influence of particular media over certain institutions is gauged (Lunt and Livingstone, 2016). This paper looks at the general theory of mediation, which is a critical justification of mediatization, without dismissing its incomplete usefulness.

For contemporary sociological inquiry into late-modern society, a theory of the importance of the media for culture and society is no longer an interesting possibility, but an absolute necessity. Mediatization theory applies an institutional perspective to the media and their interaction with culture and society (Morgan, 2011). Mediatisation means the form and logic any medium involved in the process of communication. "Media logic" is the institutional and technological modus operandi of the media, including how media distribute material and symbolic resources and operate with the help of formal and informal rules (Murdock, 2017). Media logic sees and interprets social affairs. Therefore, a medium has intrinsic physiognomies in its operation and production, which organize the process of assortment, transmission, and the reaction of information. Media logic needs to be observed because media is critical and exert a historically and atypical logic in a given historical moment (Murdock, 2017). Mediatisation does not imply anything postmodern or modern. It only means the developments that happen due to a change in media and the results of those changes. For example, mediatization may mean an increase in different media, changing media environments, the new functions of digital media or the changing forms of communication and relationships between people (Lunt and Livingstone, 2016). Thus, mediatization extends human communication, engage organizations and people and subsume institutions and social activities in their media logic. It remains to be seen as a unilateral diffusion process of media logic into social spheres such as politics, religion, and education (Morgan, 2011). Mediatisation process is essential to the reflexive accumulation of consumer goods and has become more image loaded (Murdock, 2017). The relationship between media texts and consumer goods weaves together with other forms of consumption, which exposes the inseparability of these two domains. Therefore, Mediatisation has led to the rise of a culture of consumption and media production. It has also increased the role of arbitrated cultural products in developing or maintaining cultural communities. We need to think more about the economic and capitalist dynamics behind the media industry (Murdock, 2017).

Mediatisation is a critical concept that describes particular forms of the use and effects of media based on the ambivalent and implicit religion, politics or economics. It is productive to consider of mediatization as a concept that sensitizes a researcher on what to do instead of defining precisely what happens in advance of the social methodical examination. Mediatization as a high-level social meta-process about the historical appropriation or adjustment of media logics by cultural practices across the community, not as a theory, which suggests testable hypotheses on event action or the unswerving exercise of power in specific settings (Morgan, 2011). Even though the comprehensive consent, which mediatization denotes to a course of increasing media significance and effect, consequently far mediatization has the character of a theoretical framework instead of a proper theory. Though significant development has been made, much effort remains before it can be seen as an elaborated theory. Critics also uphold that mediatization as the proliferation of a media logic includes a reification that places the process past human agency and presents it as something that just happens and not something, which we create.

Dependency and Modernization theories

Dependency theory is an approach asserting that developed countries continue exploiting developing nations for their own benefits. It takes a closer look at how developed economies play into underdevelopment of states within them (Witt, 2015). Modernization theory, on the other hand, looks at a countrys domestic factors with an assumption that underdeveloped nations can be helped by employing similar methods that developed nations use. This paper discusses how dependency and modernization theories differ. According to dependency theory, the unleveled power distribution in global markets keeps developing countries in poverty. Though these countries try making economic advances, they still remain weak and submissive to developed nations and corporations in a more linked global economy. This interdependency acts as an opportunity for industrialized countries to continue exploiting developing countries for their own benefits. Witt argues that a large share of developing countries natural and human resources are redistributed to the developed nations due to the huge sums of money they owe the developed nations as result of trade deficits and loans. The global debt predicament has strengthened third world dependency, rooted in multinational investment, colonialism and neocolonialism.

Modernization theory emphasizes on the social aspects which assist social progress and the development of societies. Modernization focuses on the relationship between multinational corporations and developing countries. Multinational corporations assist developing nations by creating employment and promoting rapid development by diffusion of innovations and inventions from industrialized nations (Witt, 2015). Combination of skilled management and technology provided by multinationals and the cheap labor from developing countries benefits the corporations. International ties created by multinationals prevent disputes and make nations more independent.

It is evident that dependency and modernization theories differ in terms of the agenda of developed nations towards developing nation. Unlike dependency which makes developing nations dependent, modernization assists developing countries but also benefit the developed nations.

Bibliography

Lunt, P. and Livingstone, S., 2016. Is mediatization the new paradigm for our field? A commentary on Deacon and Stanyer (2014, 2015) and Hepp, Hjarvard and Lundby (2015). Media, Culture & Society, 38(3), pp.462-470.

Morgan, D., 2011. Mediation or mediatization: The history of media in the study of religion. Culture and Religion, 12(02), pp.137-152.

Murdock, G., 2017. Mediatization and the Transformation of Capitalism: The Elephant in the Room. Javnost-The Public, 24(2), pp.119-135.

Witt, J. (2015). SOC . New York City: McGraw-Hill Education.