[Commlist] ECREA Online pre-conference – Mediatization 3.0? The future of the research field

*Call for Abstracts **– ECREA Online pre-conference Mediatization 3.0? 
The future of the research field October 12, 2022 (submission deadline: 
June 30, 2022)*

Since its inception, mediatization has been a contested term within 
media and communication research that includes different perspectives on 
the interrelation between technological and socio-cultural change. While 
it can be argued that mediatization as a meta-process is an omnipresent 
part of human history, mediatization research is primarily a response to 
the progressing digitization and datafication of society and its 
consequences for human interaction and sense-making. The mediatization 
approach is characterized by different perspectives: constructivist, 
institutional, material and cultural as well as critical giving 
academics the possibility to discuss theoretically and methodologically 
socio-technological change. Where traditional communication research 
focused on media as independent entities, mediatization research 
contributed by highlighting interrelations and the interweaving of media 
and practices within different fields of human interaction.

However, as technology and society change, many of the claims that set 
early mediatization research apart have become self-evident in the light 
of the ubiquity of technical gadgets, social networks, and a sprawling 
digital infrastructure. As computers of different shapes and forms have 
not only become part of all symbolic operations, they have also evolved 
into “smart” infrastructures that act as gatekeepers between humans and 
the reality they live in, affecting us on a deeper level. What was once 
theorized and studied within specific communities and practices is now a 
widely accepted fait accompli that touches every aspect of everyday life.

Through all of this, mediatization has remained a useful yet broad 
concept that offers various points of contact for researchers from 
different disciplines. At the same time, mediatization has become an 
all-encompassing umbrella term for studying social and technological 
change. Its proponents find themselves targeting and discussing their 
research within more specialized, thematically relevant contexts. With 
core issues of mediatization research being widely discussed in various 
contexts, the boundaries and benefits of mediatization research are at 
risk of becoming diluted, raising the question of what makes this 
approach unique and compelling for future research?

Mediatization approach, theory and field have met with many critical 
objections over the past years, to which valuable answers have been 
formulated. At the same time, however, the dynamics of change in the 
media environment have accelerated further; giving way to datafication, 
algorithmization, platformization, and the growing influence of 
artificial intelligence. This raises questions about the status of the 
research field of mediatization; the relationship between processes and 
meta-processes; and fundamental definitional issues about what media and 
communication are now in the context of complex technological processes 
(the importance of big data and the analysis of users’ data and 
behaviour), new economic conditions (data capitalism, forecasting and 
surveillance) and new socio-cultural conditions, including pandemic and 
post-pandemic reality.

We want to invite researchers to discuss the past and the future of 
mediatization research as a broad yet unifying approach. Hence, this 
call addresses both established mediatization theorists, senior 
researchers, and early-career academics, from different backgrounds 
utilizing the concept of mediatization. We hope for theoretical and 
empirical ideas of how mediatization is currently understood and how the 
concept inspires future research.

More information regarding the online pre-conference on October 12, 
2022, and the submission of abstracts (max. 300 words until June 30, 
2022) can be found here: https://bit.ly/3IyP71e <https://bit.ly/3IyP71e>

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