Mediatization Studies and Field Theory: Parallel Paths and Potential Crossroads

• In Event: Mediatization and Theoretical Convergence

Abstract

The growing literature on mediatization (Hjarvard, 2008; Hepp, 2012; Couldy and Hepp, 2013) describes the influence of logics emanating from the media (the journalistic field) on increasingly wide areas of the social world (politics, science, sports, etc.). How does this body of literature fit with field theory applied to the study of journalism and media ? A short answer would be : pretty well. Indeed various studies using the field theory tool box have shown the growing influence of media on unsuspected parts of the society : farmers’ unions (Champagne, 1990), higher administration and public policies (Nollet, 2014), medicine (Marchetti, 1997). Thus it does not require much intellectual stretching to field theory analysts to integrate the outcomes of mediatization studies (and that includes analysis in terms of media logic [Mazzoleni, 1987] or media capital [Davis & Seymour, 2010 ; Couldry, 2003]). Rephrased in the terms of field theory all these works describe the growing heteronomy of an expanding number of social spaces towards the journalistic field’s logics, priorities, interests, etc. Field theory might also fuel a more critical point of view along three main lines : 1) mediatization studies describe one historical configuration (the current one) and lack historical depth ; 2) field theory provides a more complex view of the interactions between the journalistic field and other social spaces (including the absence of interactions and the coexistence of media logics with other logics within the same social space) ; 3) field theory might help to understand the changing nature of mediatization by taking into account the dynamics internal to the journalistic field. In the end, field theory invites a broader and more historical understanding of mediatization , making it possible to avoid a somehow millenarian view of the influence of media on the social world.

Author

• Oliver Baisnee, Sciences Po Toulouse - Institute d'Etudes Politiques de Toulouse