Toward a Theory of Mediation

Abstract

It is argued that a central feature of all communication, and mass communication in particular, is a process of mediation involving organizing and interpretive schema embedded in specific formats. This mediation process may be conceptualized as a general social form that is used to direct and inform social activity and cultural phenomena. Individual action and meaning in everyday life weaves in and out of these organizing and interpretive schema. Building on symbolic interaction theory, so-called media effects are recast as cultural phenomena or content that derive meaning through symbolic references in the formal (format) properties of specific media.

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