Mediatisation and the Transformation of Capitalism: The Elephant in the Room

Abstract

Recent years have seen the idea of mediatisation promoted as a unifying concept capable of overcoming the increasing specialisation and fragmentation of communication research and addressing the increasing ubiquity and centrality of media across all areas of institutional and intimate life. Advocates present it as media centred but not media centric, arguing for inquiry that explores the interconnections between innovations in media and wider social and cultural change. While shifts in the organisation of economic activity are referenced, mediatisation research has not so far developed a comprehensive analysis of the central role played by the resurgence of market fundamentalist models of capitalism in reorganising the relations between media and social and cultural life it seeks to address. Through a close reading of key writings on mediatisation, this article demonstrates the necessity of integrating a critical political economy into its core project.

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