In Part 2, we ended with a section on mediatization theory being a process particularly characteristic of societies of “high modernity.” In Part 3, we focus on mediation and media theories, followed by the mediatization of religion and media as a “secular” phenomenon in Western societies.

See Part 1: Media and Mediatization Theory
See Part 2: Media Logic and Semi-Independence
See Part 4: forthcoming

Mediation and Medium Theory

Mediation and mediatization are distinct theoretical concepts that need to be clarified in relation to the theory of mediatization.

Mediation refers to the communication of meaning via a type of medium in a specific social context (Hjarvard 2013, 19). An individual (a sports fan, video gamer, or film enthusiast) could use an online discussion forum instead of emails or handwritten letters to communicate with an audience. The decision to use a forum will influence the form and content of the communication.

Mediatization, however, identifies a lengthier process in which social and cultural institutions and modes of interaction transform as a consequence of the growth of the media’s influence. It is therefore interested in the social and cultural structural transformations engendered by the media and how the media’s authority defines social reality and conditions social interaction.

Also referred to as “media ecology,” medium theory has some similarities with mediatization theory, although they are also different. Both acknowledge the influence of media, the different media’s particular formatting of communication, and the impacts on interpersonal relations to which this gives rise (Hjarvard 2013, 12).

Hjarvard, however, argues that medium theory problematically affirms technological determinism, by which its “theorists typically focus on certain intrinsic logics of the individual media’s technology, so that either printing technology or television is seen to be the key factor in bringing about a new kind of society” (Hjarvard 2013, 12). Medium theory therefore fails to understand and interrogate the interaction between technology and culture, causing a particular medium to be reduced to its technological “nature.”

Further, medium theory is seldom interested in specific historical, cultural, or social relations and is mainly oriented toward changes at the macro level. Mediatization theory, however, is more committed to empirical analysis, including the study of specific mediatization processes among different groups within the population.

The Mediatization of Religion

Mediatization theory attempts to account for a general process of transformation of various socio-cultural institutions and fields that become increasingly dependent on the media and media logic in order to serve their own interests. The transformative influences upon religious institutions are immediately apparent.

The mediatization of religion as a process originated in the eighteenth century as media “gradually have replaced religion as the dominant institution in western society” (Altheide and Snow 1979, 199). Drawing on Stig Hjarvard’s work, media have the following four effects on religion:

• [1] Media, for most in Western societies, are the primary source of their religious ideas, whether this be their own religion or those of others;
• [2] Media become the primary source of religious imagination, instead of this source being traditional religious institutions and sacred scriptures;
• [3] Many functions of religious institutions (community building, rituals, and moral and spiritual guidance) have been taken over by the media (there is “secular” worship in fan and celebrity culture);
• [4] Religious institutions themselves have subsumed to “media logic,” by which they frame their actions and activities in forms appealing to the media and to audiences of that media.

Media as Secular

Mainstream media institutions are secular in that they have a non-confessional orientation, while there is also limited usage of media with a strong confessional orientation (Lynch 2011).

In some Nordic societies, only a few smaller news media institutions have religious affiliations or objectives. Journalism is also a secular occupation that keeps a distance from political parties and religious organizations (Hjarvard 2012, 29). When media journalists discuss religious institutions, they mostly do so as they would any other institution, organization, or issue.

The influence of the media as a socio-cultural institution has caused religious institutions (churches) to lose much of their former authority. These institutions’ ability to control the public representation of religion in general and their own interests in particular has diminished significantly.

A study on the institutionalized ways by which Danes, eighteen years and older, engaged religious issues, going to church or reading religious texts, was marginal compared with the use of media (e.g., television programs, non-fiction books, and the internet) (Hjarvard 2008, 13-14). Reading the Bible (or other religious texts) was the least used way, while conversations with family and close friends featured a more prominent role (rather than talking to pastors or ministers or other members of a religious congregation or institution). Hjarvard interprets these findings to possibly indicate that religious issues in a highly modernized society are considered private and personal, rather than public and social.

References

Altheide, David L., and Snow, Robert P. 1979. Media Logic. Beverly Hills, California, United States: Sage.

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. Santa Clarita, California, United States: International Clearinghouse.

Hjarvard, Stig. 2013. The Mediatization of Culture and Society. London and New York: Routledge.

Lynch, G. 2011. “What Can We Learn from the Mediatization of Religion Debate?” Culture and Religion 12(2):203-210.