Although media, society, and religion are for some considered distinct phenomena, they all overlap, affecting each other in various ways.

Recognizing this, scholars have conceptualized the theory of mediatization (Finneman 2011; Kaun and Fast 2014) and mediatization of religion (Hjarvard 2008, 2012, 2016; Lundby 2009; Morgan 2011; Lövheim and Hjarvard 2012; Lövheim and Hjarvard 2019).

See Part 2: Media Logic and Semi-Independence

Media

Media are technologies that expand communication in time, space, and modality, and take on social and aesthetic forms that structure how the media come to be used in various contexts. Each type contains its own characteristics and varies in both use and content between cultures and societies.

Media is conventionally understood to refer to print, photos, illustrations, radio, television, film, computers, and the internet. In terms of mediatization theory, the focus is often on electronic media since the second half of the twentieth century and, more recently, interactive media (e.g., the internet and mobile devices).

Developments in media technology continue leading to further academic theoretical developments. As Kaun and Fast explain, the 2000s, with their “increasing speed and accessibility of the internet, massive distribution of mobile phones, [and] the emergence of different new platforms that engrained media more robustly into our lives, required a new theoretical and methodological approach” (2014, 11).

Mediatization Theory

Mediatization theory attempts to account for the transformative influences media have in culture and society, especially in modern Western societies.

Fundamentally, mediatization theory recognizes the increasing centrality of the media in society and culture, making it useful for understanding how media spread to, become intertwined with, and influence other fields or socio-cultural institutions (Hjarvard 2013, 2). It has been applied to politics (Asp 1986, 1990; Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999; Stromback 2008), religion (Hjarvard 2011), science (Weingart 2022), video games (Wimmer 2012; Zeiler 2014), and war (Nilsson and Ekman 2024).

Mediatization as a Transformative Process

As a theory for understanding the processes of social and cultural transformations, mediatization is not unlike urbanization, individualization, and globalization (Hjarvard 2013, 7), which have been topics of significant discussion among sociologists over many decades.

Mediatization theory therefore refers to a transformative process “whereby culture and society to an increasing degree become dependent on the media and their logic” (Hjarvard 2013, 17). The process is characterized by “a duality, in that the media have become integrated into the operations of other social institutions and cultural spheres, while also acquiring the status of social institutions in their own right. As a consequence, social interaction—within the respective institutions, between institutions, and in society at large—increasingly takes place via the media” (Hjarvard 2013, 17).

The mediatization process is also pervasive as media have transformed all fields of culture by changing “the rules of aesthetic creation, dissemination, and the use of sound, images, and texts. To a high degree, mediatization affect[s] reading, the book industry and the school, listening and the music industry, the theater, film and visual culture in both fine-arts and popular culture” (Fornäs 2011, 5; quoted by Kaun and Fast 2014, 10).

References

Asp, Kent. 1986. Powerful Mass Media: Studies in Political Opinion Formation. Stockholm, Sweden: Akademilitteratur.

Chandler, Daniel., and Munday, Rod. 2020. A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford, England, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Finneman, Niels Ole. 2011. “Mediatization theory and digital media.” Communications 36:67–89.

Fornäs, Johan. 2011. “Medialisering: Introduktion.” In Medialisering av kultur, politik, vardag och forskning, edited by Johan Fornäs and Anne Kaun, 5-13. Södertörn, Sweden: Medierstudier vid Södertörn.

Hjarvard, Stig. 2008. “The mediatization of religion A theory of the media as agents of religious change.” Nordic Journal of Media Studies 6:9-26.

Hjarvard, Stig. 2012. “Three Forms of Mediatized Religion Changing the Public Face of Religion.” In Mediatization and Religion: Nordic Perspectives, edited by Stig Hjarvard and Mia Lövheim, 21-44. University of Gothenburg, Sweden: Nordicom.

Hjarvard, Stig. 2013. The Mediatization of Culture and Society. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Hjarvard, Stig. 2016. “Mediatization and the changing authority of religion.” Media, Culture & Society 38(1):8-17.