Mediatization: From Structure to Agency (and Back Again)

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.