Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Göran Bolin 66 whether they approach history as a linear process or if other historical perspectives are also included. The account will, by necessity, be brief, and a fuller account can be found in Bolin (2014). The most commonly used perspective in mediatization research is the institutional approach , with proponents such as Stig Hjarvard (2013) or Jesper Strömbäck (2008). As the label indicates, this perspective emphasises the media as institutions, and most often the focus is on the traditional mass media press and television (and sometimes radio). A large portion of this re- search takes its departure in the media logic perspective of Al- theide & Snow (1979), although without their more nuanced fo - cus on the textual dimension, and an equally large portion focus on the institution of journalism in relation to politics – although there are exceptions such as Stig Hjarvards (2004) focus on the mediatization of the toy industry. The relation between media, culture and society in this approach posits the media as affecting society (or some- times culture) from outside, where the media play the role of the independent variable. This also makes the analyses in this approach take on causal explanatory models, where the histori- cal perspective also is largely linear. The media institutions are seen as separate from society, affecting society causally from the outside. The historical perspective is often also quite short, sel- dom going back further than to mid 20th century. An example if this perspective can, for example, be found in this quote: The process of the mediatization of politics can be described as a process through which the impor- tant question involving the independence of the media from politics and society concludes with the independence of politics and society from the media. (STRÖMBÄCK, 2008, p. 241) Within the technological approach , the media are re- garded in their capacity of technologies and sign systems. Also here it is mainly the traditional mass media technologies that are in focus, but it is their way of communicating that is at fo- cus, that is, the limits they set up for meaningful communica-