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Mediatization: From Structure to Agency (and Back Again)

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Dynamics Of Mediatization

Abstract

The central argument of this chapter is that mediatization as a multi-level process needs to be empirically analysed both at the institutional level and at the level of practice. Mediatization as structuration thesis (Hjarvard 2014) is expanded by relating the media system as structure to media use as agency. Several empirical studies that relate the structural and the action/practice level are examined as examples. To map the differences in the state of mediatization of media systems, a set of indicators for macro-level mediatization are proposed and tested comparatively in 33 East- and West-European countries. Five clusters of digital media landscapes are obtained according to likeness of the indicator values. The chapter argues for further empirical study of the structuration process and the increased attention to agency within the institutional approach to mediatization as well as for the adoption of a multi-level mixed methods research program for empirically investigating mediatization as a multi-level and multi-dimensional social process.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter was developed within the strategic area of Mediatization of Media Systems and Public Sphere in the Context of Transition at the Centre for Media and Communication Research, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, and the research project ‘Cinema and Television in Post-Transition in Spain’ (CSO2012-31895) at the University Carlos III, Madrid, funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competividad del Gobierno de España [Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Government of Spain].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Zrinjka Peruško

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  1. Zrinjka Peruško
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Correspondence to Zrinjka Peruško .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Olivier Driessens

  2. Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden

    Göran Bolin

  3. ZeMKI Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Andreas Hepp

  4. Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Stig Hjarvard

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Peruško, Z. (2017). Mediatization: From Structure to Agency (and Back Again). In: Driessens, O., Bolin, G., Hepp, A., Hjarvard, S. (eds) Dynamics Of Mediatization. Transforming Communications – Studies in Cross-Media Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62983-4_4

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