Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012

The aim of the article is to outline an understanding of mediatization that might be a reference point for empirical research in various fields and contexts of present media cultures and societies. Therefore, present ideas and approaches of theorizing media-tization like for example the concept of the media logic are discussed critically. Based on this, an understanding of mediatization is outlined that focuses on the media as modifiers of communication. Such a reflection makes it possible to substantiate mediatization research as the empirical investigation of mediatized worlds.

Having been used in various guises and debates for quite some time the notion of mediatization (and related concepts such as mediation or medialization) promises to expand the horizon of media and communication research. Casting the role of the media in and for current western societies as ever more central employing a range of theoretical approaches, mediatization could help to further advance our knowledge of the role of mediated communication for the creation of social realities today. Still, the recent interest in the conceptual framework has also caused confusion as to which approaches are compatible, to which methodological scope the concept extends and what its theoretical and ideational roots are. This article tries to sort through the wealth of conceptual propositions in order to clarify a research approach that might help to reunite social, cultural and communication theory in the face of today's media culture.

This article is looking at the status quo of mediatization research in French and Spanish speaking communities of communication researchers. It argues that problems of mediatization are discussed in these communities namely under the term 'mediation' (médiation, mediación). This term does not mean exactly the same as 'mediatization as a metaconcept' which Friedrich Krotz has proposed in the last decade - but there are common lines of thinking: both, mediatization and mediation, focus on (1) communication as social and symbolic action, (2) the role of technical media and digitalization in postmodern societies, (3) the transcultural background of changes in the lifeworld (not at least via globalization processes), structured more and more via technical mediated communication. The author outlines mediation research in France and Latin America, focusing especially on basic readings in these fields, namely the works of Paul Béaud (for France and the francophone Switzerland) and Jésus Martín-Barbero for Latin America as well as for France. Both lines, the French and the Latin American ? which are interwoven ? are not very well known in western and northern Europe.

In light of developments within the field of media theory, a certain consensus has evolved in favour of approaches like mediatization and mediation. While these approaches above all focus on societal change from a media-dependent point of view, this article addresses the reverse side of these processes, asking about media users' appropriation of media in order to experience sociality that has only just been enabled by media-use. This awareness of medial terms and conditions is characterized as recipients' acknowledgment as well as utilization of medial constraints, which is subsequently referred to as mediality.