Towards the “Audiencization” of Mediatization Research? Audience Dynamics as Co-Constitutive of Mediatization Processes

Abstract

Looking over the landscape of recent debates about mediatization, this chapter opens up a discussion of the theoretical and methodological challenges arising from the need to systematically explore audience dynamics as an integral part of mediatization processes. The chapter directs its argument towards institutionalist mediatization theory as well as constructivist mediatization theory. The theoretical argument is supported by empirical examples taken from the areas of audiences’ news platform selection and repertoire-building; online audience mobilization; and media and audience discourses about politics. It is finally suggested that Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model can be used as a heuristic framework for conceptualizing the ‘audiencization’ of mediatization processes.