Impact of Mediatisation on the Social Condition - Essay Example

The Mediatisation of Society Impact of Mediatisation on the social condition As autonomous s, the media provide the means through which other social institutions and actors communicate; in the end, the media controls and impacts the manner in which other social institutions such as family, politics and religion relate. Principally, mediatisation affects social conditions through the influence of media on the interactions of individuals within social institutions. For instance, the use of mobile phones for communication between family members is a prime example of the manner in which media intervenes into the interactions of individuals in the family unit. On the other hand, media intervenes into the interactions of institutions through telecommunications media, which allow individuals to connect remotely. Furthermore, the media intervenes into the interactions of people in the wider society by disseminating and recording information regarding crucial events that are important to the community. Evidently, the media intervenes into social interaction in different ways, depending on the concrete features of the medium involved; these include the physical and practical aspects, as well as the social and visual merits of the medium in question. The media has made it possible for people to interact across vast distances without having to travel physically to meet up with one another or having to be at the same venue concurrently; there is a great difference between mediated interaction (through media) and non-mediated interaction (face-to-face). This marked difference clearly illustrates the manner in which media transforms social interactions; for instance, all the parties involved in face-to-face communications are exposed to both the verbal and non-verbal cues. However, this is not the case with mass media such as newspapers, radio and television whose recipients are often indefinite; on the other side of the spectrum, a telephone conversation between two individuals is a mediated interaction between known individuals. Nevertheless, mediated conversation is not necessarily more or less the non-mediated interaction in face-to-face interaction; in fact, only difference is that the situation that mediated interaction occurs in inevitably transforms the way the individuals interact. Unlike in non-mediated face-to-face communication, media has such an incredible capacity to extend interaction both in time and in space; media permits individuals to be in permanent connection all over the world, regardless of their physical isolation. Granted that mediated interaction does not require individuals to be at the same location at the same time, media influences the capacity of performers (individual actors) to direct the manner in which the social situation is defined. Similarly, media also changes the ability of individual performers to control the use of verbal and non-verbal cues and accessories, and to define territorial boundaries in the interaction. The implication of this is that media makes it very possible for individuals to act on multiple stages at the same time and to maximize social interactions to their own advantage; another consequence of mediated interaction is that media inevitably alters shared relations between participants. With respect to the first consequence, media not only enables individuals to interact across long distances without the need of having to share the same physical space at the same time, but also enables them to hold multiple social interactions concurrently. For instance, it is now very possible for a parent to talk to kids in the family while watching TV, or to give advice on solving one’s family problems over the phone while at the office. Internet access has in effect multiplied the possibilities that exist in this respect; for instance, web users have the unrivalled capacity to hold multiple interactions at the same time, be it work, shopping, banking, or even communicating with family and friends over the web. One can easily switch between different interactions in multiple parallel contexts with incredible easiness, a phenomenon that is the reserve of mediated interactions. It is incredulously impossible to hold more than one non-mediated face-to-face interaction concurrently, without violating the norm of collaboration, that characterizes social interactions. In that respect, media allows individuals to divide easily their attention between multiple social scenes, particularly because some types of media can be relegated to the background while one focuses their attention somewhere else. For instance, the radio is designed in a manner that it can easily fade into the background, thereby allowing people to carry on with other tasks, as it is the case when one is working or driving while still listening to music. There are two major ways through which the media allows participants to augment social interactions to their personal advantage; media lessens individuals’ burden of social relations while at the same time allowing them greater control over the exchange of information. The media do lessen the burden of social relations because they permit individuals to maintain closer contact without having to make much personal investment in terms of money, attention and effort. For instance, inviting friends over for dinner during the weekends requires more personal investment in terms of money, attention and effort, yet it serves the same purpose as switching on the television, which offers entertainment and vicarious company without that much of personal investment. Indeed, there are many advantages to making physical contact through face-to-face interaction; however, the TV provides an unquestionably convenient way of entertaining oneself. In the same breathe, emailing also provides a quicker and convenient way of interacting with workmates at the office, rather than checking in on people at their respective offices, even if they are just a few doors down the corridor. Most importantly, emailing empowers individuals to steer the conversation more than they would have in ordinary conversations because they may end up wandering off the topic and taking longer than necessary besides requiring one to pay particular attention to a certain level of courtesy. Through media, it is increasingly possible to manage the flow of information, that is, information flows to and from the participants in question; for example, in the case of short message services, one has great control over how and when they can respond to others’ messages. By regulating the messages they send out, individuals have a great control over the images they portray to others as well; nevertheless, individuals often give off several other impressions of themselves alongside their intended communication, either unknowingly, or because they fail to control their messages well. For instance, one may give one impression through their speech but their body language may convey a different and even conflicting message altogether. In that context, it lies within the interest of every performer to control all nuances of their self-representation, particularly because the average receiver is well able to scrutinize and appraise the behaviour of others, with the aim of detecting errors and contradictions. In that regard, the media helps individuals to control thoroughly the impressions they project to the rest of the world; usually, choosing a medium that offers a narrower communication channel allows individuals greater control over their own communication, hence much greater control over the impression they project. As a matter of principle, many people prefer communicating through narrower channels of communication such as the SMSs, the email and web messenger, despite the fact that media offers numerous other broad channels of communication. Mediatisation theory The mediatisation theory proposes that the media invariably influences and alters the processes and discourse of political communication and the society within which communication occurs (Couldry 2008, p.377). The media occupies the centre stage in the contemporary society, inevitably resulting to the subordination of the authority of previously influential social institutions; because of the mediatisation of society, all other institutions are influenced by, and are dependent in mass media. According to the mediatisation theory, the rise in media authority and integration of the same media in nearly every aspect of cultural practices does stimulate cultural change (Hijarvard & Peterson 2013, p.2). The implication of this is that the media can no longer be perceived as being outside the society and influencing specific aspects of cultural institutions and the individuals in them. The concept of “media logic”, which is integrally at the core of the mediatisation theory, describes the supremacy of media in social and cultural terms, that is, the formal and technical modus operandi of the media. Mediatisation has customarily been used to describe the uninterrupted increase in the influence of media in today’s society; similarly, the term mediatisation has also been used to describe the changes in institutions such as politics (Ampuja, Koivisto & Väliverronen 2014, p.112). Broadly speaking, the term has also been applied in the description of the new situation, both in the modern and in the post-modern society. The concept of “mediatisation” has been applied in many contexts to illustrate media’s critical influence on a vast range of phenomena and is very critical to the understanding of the significance of media to culture and society. Kent Asp, a Swedish media investigator first applied the term “mediatisation” in political communication, when he spoke of the “mediatisation of political life”, the process by which political systems are influenced and adjusted accordingly, by the mass media’s way of covering politics. Consequently, political systems have evolved significantly, in response to the so-called mediatisation of politics; for instance, politicians are increasingly personalizing and polarizing issues in their public pronouncements so that their messages can be more forceful to attract the attention of media. Media’s independence of political sources is a primary example of the increasing mediatisation, which grants the media more control over its own content; the media’s influence on all other institutions of society and their relations to one another is immense. For instance, the media questions both the authority and the ability of institutions like the school to control the flow of knowledge and information while at the same time setting the social and political agenda. Consequently, the onset of mediatisation has inevitably resulted to the abundance of information in society, which means that individuals must now compete for attention of the media to get their messages across. Bell’s Post-Industrial Society (P-IS) Bell’s “post-industrial society” theory tries to describe the shifting nature of contemporary society in advanced industrial nations; Bell’s post-industrial society thesis focuses on the fundamental changes taking place in the social structure, among other things. Bell subdivides society into three main dimensions namely the social structure, polity, and culture; the social structure is composed of technology, the economy and industrial system, and its primary concern is the organization of production and distribution of goods and services. The axial principle of the social structure, which distinguishes it from other dimensions of society, is “functional rationality”; this principle has everything to do with efficiency and productivity, that is, the reduction of costs and maximization of output. As conceptualized by Bell, a post-industrial society is pervaded by the service sectors, professional and technical occupations; similarly, human relations and intellectual technology are at the core of this society. These relationships and intellectual technology are dependent on the use of information and information and computing technologies that have also risen together with the machine technology. The post-industrial society, as conceptualized by Bell, is service-based, unlike the industrial society, which relies on the production of goods and services; Bell also argues that a post-industrial society relies on an information society, which forms the fourth sector in Bell’s typology. Bell further proposes that the expansion of the service economy with a particular emphasis on office work, education and government has led to the gradual shift to white-collar occupations, thus a pre-eminence of both the professional and technical class, which forms the second dimension of his typology. Professional and technical employment is the core of a post-industrial society; engineers and scientists are critical resources to the post-industrial society because they possess the vital skills required to maintain the post-industrial society. Information and knowledge, which form the basis of specialized and practical engagement lead to the 3rd dimension of a post-industrial society, which is the pre-eminence of conjectural understanding; this is the axial code of a post-industrial society. Theoretical knowledge is abstract, general and can be applied in a vast range of areas; this character of knowledge itself is what distinguishes a post-industrial society; Bell’s post-industrial society is a knowledge society. This is so because theoretical knowledge is a causal agent that closely binds science and technology, the basis for research and development that eventually leads to innovation. Similarly, a post-industrial society is a knowledge society because knowledge accounts for the largest share of employment and the increased percentage of the gross national product. Developments in theoretical knowledge have led to the possibility of technological forecasting, the fourth dimension of a post-industrial society, which entails assessing and planning technological expansion to consider alternative technologies that can potentially reduce undesirable consequences. The rise of new intellectual technology that underpins the planning of technological expansion is the fifth dimension of a post-industrial society; information and knowledge, supported by computers and data transmission systems form the core of intellectual technology. Role of information and communication technology The information society relies on Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which it applies both creatively and productively, to gain a competitive edge in the highly dynamic international system. Evidently, individuals are fast moving into a brand new phase of society, the information society, because of the ongoing mediatisation; consequently, the human condition in today’s age of mediatisation is also transforming alongside the changing society. The information society heavily relies on the use of ICTs, particularly because the quality of life and the possibility for social change and economic improvement today are heavily dependent on information and the manner in which it is applied. Advancements in information and knowledge have significantly affected the living standards, organization of work and leisure, and systems of education as well as marketplaces, among other things. ICT’s, therefore, are the agents through which the information society will continuously experience change; generally, information and communication technologies have increasingly contributed to the decrease in costs and consecutive increase in capabilities. The preponderance of ICTs has had a multifarious impact on both individuals and on society as a whole; perhaps one of the greatest impacts of ICTs on individuals is the increased access to information and services, which has resulted from the growth of the internet. Some of the positive results of this increased awareness and access to services is the increased access to better and affordable communications such as instant messaging, and increased opportunities for leisure and entertainment. Furthermore, increased access to information through ICTs has facilitated the establishment of contacts and relationships with people from diverse locations around the world, in addition to enabling individuals to obtain goods and services from a vast array of dealers. Prevalence of ICTs has also led to an improved access to educational opportunities through distance learning and on-line instruction; increasingly new ways of instruction such as interactive multi-media and virtual reality have been born out of the introduction and spread of ICTs. Alongside increased access to education, ICTs have also led to a lot of flexibility at the workplace through what has been touted as virtual offices and jobs, particularly in the communications industry. ICTs also provide access to a whole new breed of tools that did not exist before, most of which are also related to the increased access to information; increasingly, ICTs are being used for processes that were previously out of the reach for many individuals. For instance, photography in the era of ICTs has greatly been transformed through the introduction of digital cameras, photo-editing software and high quality printers that yield results that would have previously required a photographic studio. Furthermore, ICTs are increasingly being utilized to assist individuals to overcome disabilities; for instance, features such as screen magnification or screen reading software enables people who are partially blind to work using ordinary text instead of Braille. Media and the urban space Significantly, media’s technological, institutional, and aesthetic modes of operation have had a significant impact on the culture of many societies across the world. In that respect, the media have increasingly become a significant facilitator of the cultural experience, a phenomenon that is technically referred to as the “mediatisation of culture”. Simply put, mediatisation of culture can be understood as the various processes through which culture becomes transformed by media’s technological, institutional, and aesthetic modes of operation. Mediatisation has inevitably resulted to the formation of an information society in which the making, circulation, utilization as well as integration and handling of information is a crucial cultural, economic and political activity. The mediated urban spaces have increasingly become interactive, particularly because they contain media products that react to the manner in which people behave. The many vision devices that pervade most cities establish a close connection between media perception and territorial location; urban spaces have increasingly become media rich and globally connected. Media in urban spaces triggers a significant shift in the manner in which people think about public space and its social significance; communication technologies are continuously altering the face and functional nature of the city. Significantly, new forms of public and private space are emerging today, due to the growing presence of media; according to Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, three types of practice lead to the production of space (Stanek 2002, p.1). These include the spatial practices of somatic change of the surroundings, practices of depiction of space and the usual practices of appropriation of space. The first and second types of practice result to the production of places as perceived and the production of representations of space that permits it to be conceived respectively; the third type of practice transforms space into what is termed as representational spaces, that is, space as considered lived. Urban culture and media complement each other, thus, the image of the network overlaps with that of the city, recovering the notion of non-place; the public space in the information age is perceived as a complex interaction between material and immaterial spaces. That is, the interaction between material structures like streets and plazas versus the virtual space of electronic media; this hybrid space is commonly referred to as the “media city” or the “information city” (McQuire, 2006). This modern city is indeed a media-architecture complex whereby mediatized production of the urban space has largely become a constitutive structure for a new mode of social experience that is characterized by interpersonal space. This space is without all its intrinsic dimensions, appearances and social meanings but is increasingly being perceived as changing, different and contingent upon the momentary space occupied by each individual (relative to many others). This social space is hardly unified because at any given moment, every individual is occupying multiple networked spaces that not only overlap but also interpenetrate; the heterogeneity of social space is a critical experience of globalization in the contemporary society. Emerging Issues Increased fragmentation of social institutions, isolation of people from those institutions, as well as the continuing replacement of social structures with more fluid social relations have characterized the contemporary information society. Consequently, this has ushered in the new era of the so-called “liquid modernity” and the “networked society”; innovative communication technologies are inherently at the core of this networked society. The ongoing fragmentation and personalization of social structures as well as spread of communication technologies and sources of information have altered communication processes significantly (Bennett 2013, p.2). The increased diversity in technologies and information sources has liberated audiences from remaining captives of only a few mass media channels; a vast majority of younger audiences are increasingly moving towards more lifestyle-oriented issue discourses on social networks and specialized online media. In that respect, contemporary communication has increasingly become personalized, not just in the way messages are framed, but also in the manner in which these messages are shared across social networks; individuals themselves are more engaged in the production and transmission of information. Significantly, it is becoming clear that both the elites and the media can no longer overlook or marginalize the fact that individuals are now becoming actively involved in the creation and transmission of messages and information in the contemporary society than ever before. Presently, communication processes are shifting in ways that supplement, contend with, and even sometimes retire the forms that previously characterized modern societies; evidently, a fourth era of the personalized, technology-oriented communication is definitely emerging. Case Studies The ongoing transformation of institutions in democracies where the mass media influence nearly every social sphere is indicative of the media’s high sense of self-determination and power that enables them to compel other institutions to yield to their reasoning. This section provides two case studies that demonstrate the prospects and precincts of mediatisation effects in negotiating institutions. Generally, mediatisation effects rely on the structures, processes, and nature of the object of the mediatisation effects; each of the following case studies presents an institution with varied national, historic and cultural background. In that case, what follows is a concise description of the characteristics of each case, followed by a brief discussion of the institutions’ prospects of implementing media logics. The 2005 German Bundestag Election Case Election of the German Bundestag in September 2005 led to the Red-Green-Coalition’s loss of majority in parliament; similarly, German’s conservative (Black-Yellow) alliance did not strike the majority either, contrary to the projection of opinion polls (Schrott & Spranger 2006, p.13). Nevertheless, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder interpreted the election results as indication that citizens still wanted a government under his leadership and resumed his post despite the Red-Green having missed majority. Contrariwise, Angela Merkel, the Conservative alliance’s chancellor candidate claimed the leadership for herself, a development that led to negotiation talks for a great alliance with Merkel as chancellor a month later. The negotiation process involved leading politicians from the two parliamentary parties in exploratory talks; certain mediatisation effects that result from the prospect of the talks fulfilling media logic were inherent in the talks. The low level of formalization in the exploratory talks gave participants freedom to exploit mediatisation effects to further their objectives. In that context, it is obvious that both the appearance and the extent of mediatisation effects were significantly influenced by the incentives of implementing that logic into the negotiation process (Schrott & Spranger 2006, p.14). For instance, politicians freely spoke about the numerous alternative forms of alliances that could be established, and speculated on who the ministers of the new government were likely to be. Precisely, members of the conservative alliance took the discussion of the formation of a coalition with other parties into public domain with the aim of pressurizing the Social Democrats. In that respect, it is clear that aspects of the media logic rather than the logic of two negotiating institutions significantly dominated the exploratory talks between the two national parliamentary parties. Both concerned and non-concerned individuals opted to go public as a strategic move to push for the formation of an alternative coalition. In a swift turn of events, the final decision to form a big coalition with Merkel as Chancellor was reached in closed talks between a few leading politicians from both parties; this is typical of the conventional logic of negotiating individuals, which stands in contrast from media logics. The Conclave Case For hundreds of years, the Conclave, with its unchanged procedures and structures, has remained to be the key negotiating institution entrusted with the task of electing popes (Schrott & Spranger 2006, p.10); as a negotiating institution, the conclave often attracts immense public attention and media scrutiny whenever it convenes. Both the public and media are great influences that could potentially threaten electoral freedom; in that respect, the Conclave wails-off from the public, routinely investigates and keeps the rooms in which the Cardinals convene from the public and media. The elective Cardinals are always sworn into an oath of secrecy at the start of every election of the pope; at the end of extensive discussions, the cardinals arrive at the final decision electing the new pope through a stipulated majority rule. In an isolated incidence in 2005, a few months after the election of Benedict XVI, a cardinal anonymously tipped off the media with all the details of the numerous ballots in the Conclave, thereby raising suspicions of a possible mediatisation of the Vatican institution. Significantly, this sort of indiscretion is undoubtedly a response to the massive media attention for the new pope; however, it has been argued that it does not necessarily qualify as an indicator for mediatisation of the Conclave (Schrott & Spranger 2006, p.10). It is highly unlikely that increased media attention would at any rate instigate any profound institutional change in terms of a shift in the processes or the information policy of the Conclave. The Conclave is unquestionably one of the negotiating institutions with the greatest level of formalization; in this regard, the incidence regarding leakage of the details of the pope’s election to the media is not new to the new phenomena of a mediatized society. In that context, this incidence is nothing but a contemporary form of interest in the Vatican institution of the pope and it is quite unlikely that it might end up influencing the electoral process of the Conclave. From this case study, it is clear that media attention is significant but not sufficient for the prospect of mediatisation of institutions; clearly, implementation of the media logic is not easily achievable in institutions that possess strong factors of tenacity like Conclave’s high level of formalization. Overall, culture has increasingly become globalized and commoditized in today’s highly complex and dynamic knowledge economy; the increased globalization and commercialization of culture has brought both high art and every day culture into new social contexts. The social and material conditions of culture are the entry points to understanding the culture of a society; however, the same culture has also been integrated into other new forms of social and material practices, because of media influences. The media has gradually permeated the modern society, consequently becoming integrated both in today’s numerous cultural and social institutions (Hijarvard 2008, p.105). While media have become integrated into the operations of other institutions on one hand, they have also gained a high sense of self-determination and power that enables them to compel other institutions to yield to their reasoning. In that context, the media are not only an integral part of both society and culture, but also an autonomous institution that mediates between other social and cultural institutions while at the same time organizing their relations. This form of duality in which the media have become integrated into institutional functions while gaining the status of social institutions is what defines mediatisation, whereby society has yielded to the media and their logic. As autonomous institutions, the media provides the means through which other social institutions and actors communicate, thereby controlling and affecting the manner in which other social institutions such as family, politics and religion relate. Principally, medialization impacts social conditions through the influence of media on the interactions of individuals within social institutions; nevertheless, the media intervenes into social interaction in different ways, depending on the concrete features of the medium involved, including the physical and practical aspects, as well as the social and visual merits of the medium in question. References Ampuja, M., Koivisto, J., & Väliverronen, E., 2014. Strong and Weak Forms of Mediatization Theory: A Critical Review, Nordicom Review 35 (2014) Special Issue, pp. 111-123. Bennett, W.L., 2013. Changing Societies, Changing Media Systems: Challenges for Communication Theory, Research and Education. [pdf] University of Washington, Seattle: Centre for Communication & Civic Engagement http://ccce.com.washington.edu/projects/assets/working_papers/Bennett-Changing%20SocietiesChangingMedia-CCCE-WP2013-1%20.pdf Couldry, N., 2008. New Media & Society: Mediatization or mediation? Alternative understandings of the emergent space of digital storytelling, New Media Society, 10: 373. Hijarvard, S., & Peterson, L.N., 2013. Mediatization and cultural change, Journal of Media and Communication Research, 54: 1-7. Hijarvard, S., 2008. The Mediatization of Society: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Social and Cultural Change, Nordicom Review 29(2), pp. 105-134 McQuire, S., 2006, The Politics of public space in the media city. First Monday. [Online] Available at: http://firstmonday.org/article/view/1544/1459#p2 [accessed 13 Jan. 204] Schrott, A., & Spranger, D., 2006, Mediatization of political negotiations in modern democracies: Institutional characteristics matter. National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century, Working Paper No. 2. Stanek, L., 2002. The production of urban space by mass media storytelling practices: Nowa Huta as a case study. [pdf] Technical University Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architectural Theory Read More