ResuMo Usando a midiatização como conceito-chave, este artigo apresenta uma teoria sobre a mídia como agente de mudança cultural e social. A midiatização é um processo de dupla face no qual a mídia se transformou em uma instituição semi-independente na sociedade à qual outras instituições têm que se adaptar. Ao mesmo tempo, a mídia se integrou às rotinas de outras instituições, como política, família, trabalho e religião, já que um número cada vez maior das atividades destes domínios institucionais é realizado através tanto dos meios de comunicação interativos quanto dos meios de comunicação de massa. De forma geral, a midiatização implica uma virtualização da interação social e, observando as affordances institucionais, tecnológicas e estéticas de diferentes meios de comunicação, talvez possamos entender como a mídia molda novos padrões de interação.

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In response to Deacon and Stanyer's article 'Mediatization: Key Concept or Conceptual Bandwagon?', we argue that they build their criticism on a simplified methodology. They mistake a media-centered approach for a media-centric one, and they do not capture how mediatization research engages with the complex relationship between changes in media and communication on the one hand and changes in various fields of culture and society on the other. We conclude that the emergence of the concept of mediatization is part of a paradigmatic shift within media and communication research.

Using mediatization as the key concept, this article presents a theory of the influence media exert on society and culture. After reviewing existing discussions of mediatization by Krotz (2007), Schulz (2004), Thompson (1995), and others, an institutional approach to the mediatization process is suggested. Mediatization is to be considered a double-sided process of high modernity in which the media on the one hand emerge as an independent institution with a logic of its own that other social institutions have to accommodate to. On the other hand, media simultaneously become an integrated part of other institutions like politics, work, family, and religion as more and more of these institutional activities are performed through both interactive and mass media. The logic of the media refers to the institutional and technological modus operandi of the media, including the ways in which media distribute material and symbolic resources and make use of formal and informal rules.

The article presents a theoretical framework for the understanding of how media work as agents of religious change. At the centre of this theory is the concept of mediatization. Through the process of mediatization, religion is increasingly being subsumed under the logic of the media. As conduits of communication, the media have become the primary source of religious ideas, in particular in the form of 'banal religion'. As a language the media mould religious imagination in accordance with the genres of popular culture, and as cultural environments the media have taken over many of the social functions of the institutionalized religions, providing both moral and spiritual guidance and a sense of community. Finally, the results of a national survey in Denmark are presented in order to substantiate the theoretical arguments and illustrate how the mediatization of religion has made popular media texts important sources of spiritual interest. 9 NL 6 9-26