Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Discussing mediatization of politics based on the portuguese case 139 media autonomy is also reducing, even in socio-political con- texts where they operate within a democratic legal framework. As the results of the study indicate, in the Portuguese political-economic macro context, the communication business is also built through a close relationship with the political field, the legislator and regulator of the media market. In this context, the comment space may also be seen as an instance of political and economic diplomacy. This suggests that, like any other social field of power (BOURDIEU, 1989), the media are institutions whose power stems from their affirmation in face of other powers but also from the alliances they establish with those same powers. The power of the media builds through struggles and partnerships, based on the tension between professional, economic, technological, and political forces. Thus, the autonomy of the media, as a social field of power, is always relative. This conditional autonomy is also manifested in the media logics that are constituted by several oth- ers that include, in particular, rules and values in the political field. To conclude, I would like to highlight that the research discussed here reveals that the commentary is a privileged space for analyzing the dynamics – between autonomy and de- pendence – that, in Portugal, structure the relationship between the media and politics. In other geographies, the tension rela- tionship may manifest itself, preferentially, in other objects of analysis. Then, this is the time to continue to develop research that operationalizes the mediatization of politics and allows us to contribute to the development of these theories that are a rel- evant frame of work for the studies in mediatization. References AALBERG, T.; STRÖMBÄCK, J.; DE VREESE, C. The Framing of Politics as Strategy and Game: A Review of Concepts, Op- erationalizations and Key Findings. Journalism , v. 13, n. 2, p. 162-178, 2012. BLUMLER, J.; KAVANAGH, D. The Third Age of Political Commu- nication: Influences and Features. Political Communica- tion , v. 16, p. 209-230, 1999.