Mediatization of politics: reflections and findings

Abstract

The article, focused on the elucidation of the paradigm of mediatization in the research of media activity, examines various aspects of the concept of mediatization, presenting the experience accumulated by the mass media in the media coverage of the political process through the methods related to mediatization, understood as a primary function of contemporary mass media. The author refers to the peculiarities of mediatization, discusses the consequences of the mediatization process, characterizes the phenomenon of mediatization as an expression of the increased involvement of the mass media in the political process. Approaching the mediatization phenomenon offers the possibility of revealing some relevant aspects of the current political-media processes, including: the role of the media in the social construction of reality, mediatization as a premise for the manifestation of symbolic politics, as a resource for strengthening democracy. At the same time, the interpretation of mediatization contributes to the clarification of the conditions for the production of the political content of the media and the establishment of trends in the evolution of social interaction. The analysis of political-media realities also reveals certain risks for the mediatization process for the development of democracy, such as, for example, the fact of the attempts of the political class to preserve its functionality in the face of the extended power of the media.