On the Mediatization of the Social World - ZeMKI Member Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp gives Lecture at Bielefeld University

As part of the lecture series “Aktuelle mediensoziologische Forschungen” Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp will give a lecture on “Auf dem Weg zur digitalen Gesellschaft: Über die Mediatisierung der sozialen Welt” on 15. April 2024 at Bielefeld University.

To the event

Abstract:
If you take a closer look at the term “digital society”, you will notice that it has seemed to be something of a cipher for the social implications and consequences of digitalization for at least a decade now. But can a society ever really be “digital”? Hardly. On closer inspection, the discussion about the “digital society” is more about how society changes when digital media and their infrastructures become part of it. In communication and media research, the term “profound mediatization” has become established: Profound mediatization is meant as an advanced stage of media penetration of society, in which all elements of our social world are increasingly closely interwoven with digital media and their underlying infrastructures. As previous research has shown, mediatization is not a linear process, but takes place in various “spurts” of fundamental change in the media environment.

In my lecture, I would like to take up these considerations and first introduce the concept of profound mediatization in detail. Based on this, I would like to explain the extent to which the transformation of society associated with profound mediatization can be understood as a process of refiguration: As the establishment of new relationalities of figurations, the transformation of existing figurations and the emergence of new figurations. In conclusion, this leads me to the question: What role does communicative AI currently play in all of this?