The present tense of mediatization studies

This paper presents the theoretical and methodological analysis of mediatization understood as (1) the process of social transformation effected by media changes, and interrelated with other social processes, (2) and as the area of studies. Mediatization seems to be one of the most stable, capacious, and significant concept in last twenty years. Its influence on sociology, media and communication studies, and cultural studies, is substantial and followed by strong critique. Hence, the main goal of this paper is an up-to-date analysis of mediatization from theoretical and methodological perspectives. In three consecutive parts I analyse the historical phases, dominant theoretical and research perspectives, and methodological perceptions of mediatization. In this inquiry I argue that: (1) historical and spatial mediatization studies need to be developed in more complex way; (2) from dominant mediatization perspectives the institutional approach is one of the most theoretically and methodologically elaborated, (3) mediatization is in pre-paradigm phase in terms of scientific evolution, (4) critical mediatization studies should emerge, since mediatization analyses tend to neglect the economy as an important part of transformation processes.