Mediatization of communicative action

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The mediatization of communicative action is a theoretical approach in communication and media studies that deals with the increasing penetration of everyday life and culture with various forms of media communication and the associated processes of change. In essence, it is about the interrelationship between changes in communication (e.g. through the spread of new media) and changes in culture.

The approach offers a theoretical framework with which empirical findings from various studies can be understood and classified as part of a larger process. In other words, mediatization builds on empirical individual studies and integrates them into an overarching theory of cultural change through media communication. The theory was developed by the mathematician and sociologist Friedrich Krotz .

Theoretical basics: communication, culture and media

The mediatization of communicative action is based on a specific understanding of communication, culture and media that build on one another.

Communication and culture

The theory of communicative action is based on an action-theoretical communication model that is based on symbolic interactionism and cultural studies . Communication and culture are inextricably linked. As Norbert Elias emphasizes, humans live in a five-dimensional world: the three spatial, the temporal and finally one symbolic dimension. This symbolic dimension is the culture of the human being, a kind of 'interpreting foil' of his world, which he himself created through language and communication. The ethnologist Clifford Geertz similarly characterized culture as a web of meaning, as a set of all contexts of meaning that are possible in a society. According to this understanding, a change in forms of communication also results in a change in culture.

Media (communication)

In terms of human history, adolescents initially learn to communicate as face-to-face communication. Language and gestures are therefore the “natural” and most important forms of human communication; they are considered to be “archetypes”. All forms derived from this, insofar as they use specific aids, are referred to as media communication. Media are therefore understood as instruments that serve to enable, modify and shape communication. In media communication, face-to-face communication is both expanded and restricted in different ways. There are three basic types of media communication:

  • Mediatized interpersonal communication between people, e.g. B. by phone or letter
  • Production and reception of standardized and generally addressed content such as books, television, websites or even public tweeting (usually referred to as mass communication )
  • Interactive communication, e.g. B. in computer games, GPS systems, robots like the Aibo

Mediatized culture as media culture

In connection with the mediatization of communicative action, media culture means that the media are significantly involved in the production and further development of culture. Different forms of media communication permeate culture today in terms of time, space and social aspects:

  • In terms of time, media as a whole and each individual medium are available in increasing numbers at all times and offer more and more permanent content. For example, television originally had a fixed broadcast deadline, but today television is a continuous flow of standardized and generally addressed content.
  • Spatially, media are located in more and more places and connect more and more places. This is particularly evident in the spread of mobile media such as cell phones.
  • In social terms, media relate to more and more areas of life. Professional life, family, leisure time, etc. are increasingly shaped by media communication.

As a result of this penetration, not only does communication with and by means of the media itself increase in importance and “amount”; Media also play an increasing role in face-to-face communication - we talk about media or media content, adopt media statements, use knowledge conveyed through media. Therefore, culture today can no longer be understood without considering the media. One can argue that for the majority of people in developed industrial societies there is no longer any communication that cannot also be attributed as media communication - they live in a media culture.

Significance of the mediatization of communicative action

Because mediatization cultivates a sociologically oriented approach to the topic of media, the approach is open to many media-related communication phenomena and their theoretical description and empirical underpinning.

For civil society, the findings that can be subsumed under the theoretical approach of mediatization of communicative action provide answers to many civil society questions. In this way, well-founded statements can be made on a number of topics and placed in a larger social context. Here is a selection:

  • Acquisition practices of various media in everyday life (media acquisition)
  • Interactions between humans and machines / computers ( human-computer interaction )
  • Media socialization of children and adolescents
  • social effects of virtual spaces.

The approach is also characterized by its historical perspective. Mediatization describes an overarching and long-lasting process, similar to globalization , commercialization or individualization . Mediatization did not start with the advent of modern mass media or the Internet, but can already be traced back to the invention of writing (media) and the resulting cultural change processes. For Friedrich Krotz, the concept therefore forms a basis for a new cultural history of the media and communication, which reconstructs the interrelationship between communication and cultural change.

literature

  • Elias, Norbert (1989): The Symbol Theory: An Introduction. Part One, in: Theory, Culture & Society 6 (1989), pp. 169-217. Part Two, in: Theory, Culture & Society 6 (1989), pp. 339-383. Part Three, in: Theory, Culture & Society 6 (1989), pp. 499-537.
  • Geertz, Clifford (1991): Dense description, 2nd edition, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
  • Hepp, Andreas (2011): Media Culture. The culture of mediated worlds. Wiesbaden: VS publishing house for social sciences.
  • Krotz, Friedrich (2001): The mediatization of communicative action. The change in everyday life and social relationships, culture and society through the media. Opladen: West German publishing house.
  • Krotz, Friedrich (2007): Mediatization. Case studies on changing communication. Wiesbaden: VS publishing house for social sciences.
  • Krotz, Friedrich (2010): Communication and media studies under the conditions of media culture. In: Andreas Hepp, Marco Höhn, Jeffrey Wimmer (eds.): Media culture in change. Constance: UVK, pp. 93-105.
  • Krotz, Friedrich (2012): From the discovery of the central perspective to augmented reality: How mediatization works. In: Friedrich Krotz, Andreas Hepp (Ed.): Mediatized Worlds. Research fields and description approaches, pp. 27–55.
  • Kalina, Andreas / Krotz, Friedrich / Rath, Matthias / Roth-Ebner, Caroline (eds.) (2018): Mediatized societies. Media communication and social worlds in transition. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
  • Lundby, Knut (2009): Mediatization: concept, changes, consequences. New York: Long.
  • Roth-Ebner, Caroline (2015): The efficient person. On the dynamics of space and time in mediatized working environments. Bielefeld: Transcript.
  • Bidlo, Oliver (2018): From corridor radio to scrollbar. Mediatization processes in the police. Food: Oldib.

Web links

References

  1. ^ Hepp, Andreas (2011): Medienkultur. The culture of mediatized worlds, p. 34.
  2. ↑ Krotz, Friedrich (2012): From the discovery of the central perspective to augmented reality: How mediatization works, 44-47.
  3. ↑ Krotz, Friedrich (2012): From the discovery of the central perspective to augmented reality: How mediatization works, pp. 39–44.
  4. ^ Elias, Norbert (1989): The Symbol Theory: An Introduction.
  5. ^ Geertz, Clifford (1991): Density description.
  6. ^ Krotz, Friedrich (2007): Mediatization. Case studies on changing communication, p. 17.
  7. ↑ Krotz, Friedrich (2012): From the discovery of the central perspective to augmented reality: How mediatization works, p. 44.
  8. ↑ Krotz, Friedrich (2010): Communication and media studies under the conditions of media culture, pp. 99–100.