Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

Andreas Hepp 28 always a contextualized form of research with the aim of de- scribing (and critiquing) specific forms of mediatization. Third, both traditions focus on how media as means of communication change or transform culture and society. Therefore, their inter- ests are not the effects of media content and other more direct manifestations of media’s influence (HJARVARD, 2017, p. 1-3) but fundamental phenomena that stimulate change in individ- ual areas of society, parallel to the transformation of media and communication itself. Fourth and finally, it is common practice to consider perception as one facet of these transformations: As long as people orient their practices to what they expect to be media influence, media will have an, albeit indirect, influence on changing practices (NÖLLEKE; SCHEU, 2018). 3. The challenges of deep mediatization A more recent focus within mediatization research is media’s increasingly digital character and the challenges it pres- ents when we are faced with the necessity to rethink mediatiza- tion. While initial contributions on the matter were fairly gen- eral in tone (FINNEMANN, 2014; MILLER, 2014), the discussion has intensified and has become more specific as digitalization has advanced mediatization processes. The reasons for this are multifaceted. Mediatization re- search became increasingly aware that the present characteris- tic of the media is less about the dominance of one (digital) me- dium but the differentiation of highly connected digital forms. The focus has shifted, therefore, to the polymedia (MADIANOU, 2014, p. 323) or the media-manifold (COULDRY; HEPP, 2013, p. 34) character of today’s media environment. From this point of view, in order to understand how media shape and mold each area of society, it is necessary to consider digital media in terms of their intimacy with each other; that is, to reflect on the cross- media character of mediatization. Furthermore, mediatization research has become increasingly aware of how media are not just means of communication. As digital media, they are at one and the same time means of generating data while they are used for communication functions. This data is used as a source for