Topic Sports and Communication: Summary
Theme 1: Mediatization
Lecture 1
Levels of analysis:
● Macro: Societal level
● Meso: Institutional level
● Micro: Individual level
Mediatization: how media and communications are embedded in everyday life and how
other institutions adapt to media
Mediatization occurs alongside other trends like commercialization, digitalization and
globalisation. It is a nonlinear and multidimensional process.
2 research traditions of mediatization:
● Social-constructivist: How media affect daily social practices
● Institutional: How media shape other social institutions
Media are powerful agents with their own goals, interests and values, mediatization is the
way other institutions adjust to the logic of the media: you need to play the game by the
media’s rules. All institutions are to a certain degree exposed to media pressure.
Mediatization as a sensitizing concept: Sensitizing concepts give the user a general
sense of reference and guidance in approaching empirical instances. Whereas definitive
concepts provide prescriptions of what to see, sensitizing concepts merely suggest direction
along which to look. They are flexible and adaptable.
,Implications of mediatization in sport:
● Macro: Media affects how sports are played
● Macro: Sport is a (geo)political instrument
● Meso: Economic impact (revenue)
● Meso: Professionalisation
● Micro: Increased dependency on media
● Micro: Fan experience
● Micro: Tensions with value and social norms of other institutions
Geopolitical economy of sport:
● Sport is interconnected with issues of geography, politics and economics
● Countries often use sport to achieve broader geopolitical and economic goals
● The economic impact of sports is significant, with sports strategies influencing
national economies
Takeaways/conclusion:
● Sports and media are traditionally interdependent
● Mediatization: How media shape our daily experiences and interactions and how
media influences other institutions
● Mediatization is not a linear or uniform process, it comes in waves and is
context-dependent
● Digitization has accelerated the mediatization process
Article 1: Rediscovering Mediatization of Sport - Licen et al. (2022)
Mediatization: All the transformations of communicative and social processes which follow
from our increasing reliance on technologically and institutionally based processes of
mediation.
Aim of the article: Introduce mediatization as an analytical concept and phenomenon in
relation to sport + to illustrate how it is culturally contextualized and can therefore play out in
different ways.
The spread of internet, the emergence of social media and the expansion of mobile media ->
mediated communication affects individual and organizational life in sport much more than in
the past
The increased integration and importance of (social) media calls for stronger theories, but
mediatization is not uniform across cultural context or social domains.
Sport is currently experiencing a new wave of mediatization due to digitization
The continued relevance of (traditional) mass media complicates analysis and
underlines the need for more diversity + nuance in knowledge, reasons:
● Digitization unfolds in different modes and paces in different countries and cultures
● Broadcast television remains central, even in this multi-layered media ecology
, ● The transformational role of emerging digital communication media is largely
conditioned by socio-economic structures, caused by a long/enduring relationship
with the mass media and strong forces of globalization and commercialization
Overall question: How are media and communications embedded in everyday life to
transform the social order?
Increased reliance on media ultimately involves a loss of autonomy
In today’s digitized multi-medial landscape, mediatization also entails a dialectical
relationship between liberating forces and increasing socio-technical dependency, for
example female athletes empowering themselves by using social media to build a brand.
Mediation is the production, distribution and consumption/use of mediated texts in
processes of meaning production. Over time, practices, values and structures are affected
by this. These processes and effects are covered by the term mediatization.
Mediatization research requires an interdisciplinary approach: knowledge and concepts
from different studies (such as media, sports and communication studies) so that the wider
effects can be captured
It could be claimed that media and sport scholars have been early movers in mediatization
research
Mega-powers like globalization and commercialization are significant drivers involved with
transformations of sport and media across the globe, but they complicate the analysis of
mediatization of sport and make determination in which way media can be important drivers
of change difficult.
3 types of media dependencies:
● Transactional dependency: sporting actors adapt to technological, institutional or
cultural informal rules
● Ritual dependency: Media’s cultural power that shape the everyday practices
● Functional dependency: Practice of sport is altered by media and totally dependent
Theory of social systems:
, ● Interaction systems: Situations (like meetings) that can’t be restored once they end
● Organizations: More durable and formally constituted within multiple function systems
● Function systems
Article 2: Sport and mediatization Chapter 1: Introduction - Frandsen (2019)
The discussion of mediatization as a theoretical concept and empirically-considered
phenomenon has elicited considerable interest, within AND outside media/communication
studies.
Increasing numbers of people do sports on their own self-organized basis (for example
informal communities on social media instead of a traditional club). This has been
intertwined with and nourished by digitally-networked media and communication
technologies.
Effects of media are no longer confined to the sports elite or professional organizations, but
are also seen in individual athletes on a smaller scale.
The emergence of a new, complex media environment has prompted scholars to call for a
new understanding/rethinking of the role of media in relation to culture and society. Media is
integrated into our everyday lives. We can no longer rely on models that see the media as
separate from culture and society.
Growing dependency on media has called for a critical approach: Increases in human
capacity for material, social or cultural activity that are enabled by media also incorporate a
decrease in individual or institutional autonomy.
There are different types of responses to media’s pervasiveness:
● Intensified use
● Creation of new patterns of social interaction and communities
● Dependency
● Social tension
● Conflicts
● Non-use
Media shapes sport in profound ways that extend beyond mainstream: for example the use
of fantasy sports (such as FIFA) that changes understanding and physical performance of
the game.
The role of technology structures patterns of social interaction in new ways and accelerates
and shapes ongoing processes of change and transformation.
If we wish to understand the structural influences of the media, our studies need to integrate
both historical and interdisciplinary knowledge.
Mediatization is a concept that can be approached as a sensitizing concept that gives us
a general sense of reference and guidance in approaching empirical instances. It is
still evolving and open to adjustments, improvements and refinements.
Theme 1: Mediatization
Lecture 1
Levels of analysis:
● Macro: Societal level
● Meso: Institutional level
● Micro: Individual level
Mediatization: how media and communications are embedded in everyday life and how
other institutions adapt to media
Mediatization occurs alongside other trends like commercialization, digitalization and
globalisation. It is a nonlinear and multidimensional process.
2 research traditions of mediatization:
● Social-constructivist: How media affect daily social practices
● Institutional: How media shape other social institutions
Media are powerful agents with their own goals, interests and values, mediatization is the
way other institutions adjust to the logic of the media: you need to play the game by the
media’s rules. All institutions are to a certain degree exposed to media pressure.
Mediatization as a sensitizing concept: Sensitizing concepts give the user a general
sense of reference and guidance in approaching empirical instances. Whereas definitive
concepts provide prescriptions of what to see, sensitizing concepts merely suggest direction
along which to look. They are flexible and adaptable.
,Implications of mediatization in sport:
● Macro: Media affects how sports are played
● Macro: Sport is a (geo)political instrument
● Meso: Economic impact (revenue)
● Meso: Professionalisation
● Micro: Increased dependency on media
● Micro: Fan experience
● Micro: Tensions with value and social norms of other institutions
Geopolitical economy of sport:
● Sport is interconnected with issues of geography, politics and economics
● Countries often use sport to achieve broader geopolitical and economic goals
● The economic impact of sports is significant, with sports strategies influencing
national economies
Takeaways/conclusion:
● Sports and media are traditionally interdependent
● Mediatization: How media shape our daily experiences and interactions and how
media influences other institutions
● Mediatization is not a linear or uniform process, it comes in waves and is
context-dependent
● Digitization has accelerated the mediatization process
Article 1: Rediscovering Mediatization of Sport - Licen et al. (2022)
Mediatization: All the transformations of communicative and social processes which follow
from our increasing reliance on technologically and institutionally based processes of
mediation.
Aim of the article: Introduce mediatization as an analytical concept and phenomenon in
relation to sport + to illustrate how it is culturally contextualized and can therefore play out in
different ways.
The spread of internet, the emergence of social media and the expansion of mobile media ->
mediated communication affects individual and organizational life in sport much more than in
the past
The increased integration and importance of (social) media calls for stronger theories, but
mediatization is not uniform across cultural context or social domains.
Sport is currently experiencing a new wave of mediatization due to digitization
The continued relevance of (traditional) mass media complicates analysis and
underlines the need for more diversity + nuance in knowledge, reasons:
● Digitization unfolds in different modes and paces in different countries and cultures
● Broadcast television remains central, even in this multi-layered media ecology
, ● The transformational role of emerging digital communication media is largely
conditioned by socio-economic structures, caused by a long/enduring relationship
with the mass media and strong forces of globalization and commercialization
Overall question: How are media and communications embedded in everyday life to
transform the social order?
Increased reliance on media ultimately involves a loss of autonomy
In today’s digitized multi-medial landscape, mediatization also entails a dialectical
relationship between liberating forces and increasing socio-technical dependency, for
example female athletes empowering themselves by using social media to build a brand.
Mediation is the production, distribution and consumption/use of mediated texts in
processes of meaning production. Over time, practices, values and structures are affected
by this. These processes and effects are covered by the term mediatization.
Mediatization research requires an interdisciplinary approach: knowledge and concepts
from different studies (such as media, sports and communication studies) so that the wider
effects can be captured
It could be claimed that media and sport scholars have been early movers in mediatization
research
Mega-powers like globalization and commercialization are significant drivers involved with
transformations of sport and media across the globe, but they complicate the analysis of
mediatization of sport and make determination in which way media can be important drivers
of change difficult.
3 types of media dependencies:
● Transactional dependency: sporting actors adapt to technological, institutional or
cultural informal rules
● Ritual dependency: Media’s cultural power that shape the everyday practices
● Functional dependency: Practice of sport is altered by media and totally dependent
Theory of social systems:
, ● Interaction systems: Situations (like meetings) that can’t be restored once they end
● Organizations: More durable and formally constituted within multiple function systems
● Function systems
Article 2: Sport and mediatization Chapter 1: Introduction - Frandsen (2019)
The discussion of mediatization as a theoretical concept and empirically-considered
phenomenon has elicited considerable interest, within AND outside media/communication
studies.
Increasing numbers of people do sports on their own self-organized basis (for example
informal communities on social media instead of a traditional club). This has been
intertwined with and nourished by digitally-networked media and communication
technologies.
Effects of media are no longer confined to the sports elite or professional organizations, but
are also seen in individual athletes on a smaller scale.
The emergence of a new, complex media environment has prompted scholars to call for a
new understanding/rethinking of the role of media in relation to culture and society. Media is
integrated into our everyday lives. We can no longer rely on models that see the media as
separate from culture and society.
Growing dependency on media has called for a critical approach: Increases in human
capacity for material, social or cultural activity that are enabled by media also incorporate a
decrease in individual or institutional autonomy.
There are different types of responses to media’s pervasiveness:
● Intensified use
● Creation of new patterns of social interaction and communities
● Dependency
● Social tension
● Conflicts
● Non-use
Media shapes sport in profound ways that extend beyond mainstream: for example the use
of fantasy sports (such as FIFA) that changes understanding and physical performance of
the game.
The role of technology structures patterns of social interaction in new ways and accelerates
and shapes ongoing processes of change and transformation.
If we wish to understand the structural influences of the media, our studies need to integrate
both historical and interdisciplinary knowledge.
Mediatization is a concept that can be approached as a sensitizing concept that gives us
a general sense of reference and guidance in approaching empirical instances. It is
still evolving and open to adjustments, improvements and refinements.
