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At one level the process of mediation (from Latin mediare, ‘to go between’) refers to the mass media\'s role in communicating and acting as a medium of image and information to audiences. Implicit here though is the sense in which the media intervenes between ‘reality’ and the audience. This is a process of transformation whereby the media, not necessarily conspiratorially but as an aspect of the everyday technical, economic and cultural processes involved, actively reconstruct and represent the real world. The audience, then receives a mediated version of reality. Television news programmes, for instance, by interpreting reality through selecting, editing, presenting and filming mediate between the real world of events and the viewer.
Some media theorists, however, argue that the ability to mediate allows the mass media undue power to present specific values and beliefs. Critics of various political hues have complained that television news, for example, is prone to distortion and camouflage rather than simply mediation. NC
See also performing arts; representation.Further reading P. Schlesinger, Putting Reality Together. |
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