Abstract
The recent discussion on mediatisation prompts questions about how it arises and how social spheres are marked by it. In this article, we use business as an example of a social sphere to show that the production of normativity by and through the media is a central aspect of mediatisation. The empirical case of the article is the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Six specific techniques were used by the media to construct the case as an instance of corporate misbehaviour that met public recognition. The techniques are instrumental in forming the predicament of a modern mediatised business sphere, it is argued.
Highlights
In recent years, the mediatisation of society has become a topic of increased interest and debate (i.e. Deacon and Stanyer, 2014, 2015; Hepp et al, 2015; Hjarvard, 2013; Lunt andMedia, Culture & Society 00(0)Livingstone, 2016)
This article shows that the media play an active role in paving the way for changing the predicament of being a company in an environmentally sensitive field of business
Even if we do not present any full story of how the business sphere becomes mediatised, we conclude on the basis of the case that this process is essentially actor-driven
Summary
The mediatisation of society has become a topic of increased interest and debate (i.e. Deacon and Stanyer, 2014, 2015; Hepp et al, 2015; Hjarvard, 2013; Lunt andMedia, Culture & Society 00(0)Livingstone, 2016). Mediatisation has been described ‘as an approach or unifying heuristic concept for a range of media-embedded processes of social transformation’ (Ekström et al, 2016: 1097), through which it is possible to understand how media, culture and society interact (Hepp et al, 2015) It connotes a process through which ‘society to an increasing degree is submitted to, or becomes dependent on, the media and their logic’ (Hjarvard, 2008: 113). Mediatisation evolves over time (Lundby, 2016) It is a ‘very subtle form of influence, where the media affect the structure of operations of other actors, because these have to some degree become dependent on the media and have adapted themselves to the “rules” and “logics” of the media’ (Schillemans, 2016: 79). Understood in this sense, the media become integrated into the operations of other social institutions (Lövheim, 2016), while retaining the status of an institution in its own right (Hjarvard, 2008)
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