Organizations and the media: organizing in a mediatized world

In: Routledge studies in management, organizations and society

Abstract

The relationship between media and the organizations they cover has changed dramatically in the last few decades, and has witnessed a huge expansion of news coverage focusing on different types of organizations and their activities. In parallel, organizations have dramatically increased their investment in PR and other media oriented forms of communication. The expansion and increased importance of the media and its working practices and preferences has become an institutional force, alongside other societal developments such as globalization, marketization, individualization and scientification. The media has become central for shaping the environment in which organizations operate. This complex relationship remains relatively under-researched, especially with respect to the complexity and diversity of interests permeating contemporary business organizations. The main argument in this book relates to the notion of mediatization of contemporary organizations - that is to say the media must be understood not only as important in covering and scrutinizing individual organizations, industry or markets but also as a key influence on the actions of organizations, thereby shaping the entire landscape in which the organizations operate. What such a perspective provides is the accentuation of the interplay between organizations and different parts of the society as embedded in the media and its logic. This book explores how organizations and organizing can be understood as a part of a mediatized world and addresses - both empirically and conceptually - what kind of consequences such mediatization has.