Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The term mediation has historically functioned in four distinct ways. First of all, the concept has been employed as a third term in a triadic structure, mediating between one state of reality and another. Secondly, the concept refers to the technical transmission of messages, such as mass media. In this case, the sense of reality that the transmission conveys is under scrutiny. Thirdly, the concept refers to the dominance of media in contemporary constructions of knowledge. In this case the concept is analogous to mediatization. And fourthly, mediation refers to the process of linking nodal points in a network or an assembled structure, where reality is produced or performed. The first understanding has been the main focus of critical thought. The second developed in the context of industrial forms of mass media. And the third and fourth emerged recently as a consequence of post-industrial or postmodern processes and the subsequent transformation of society. Conventionally, the verb “mediate” has the meaning of interposing something as a medium between two things that are not connected. This implies a separation of the things and the necessity of mediation, as in the human soul and God, the subject and the object, the individual and society. To mediate is to connect or reconcile separate things. Mediation is thus a third term between two things. It can function as a technological ... log in or subscribe to read full text