Transformations of culture communication: from mediation to mediatization of culture

The media have become one of the most important means of representing social reality, while mediated communication definitely affects our daily lives, identities and interactions. Accelerating processes of mediatization require social and cultural institutions to act in accordance with the rules of the new media, especially in communicating with their audiences and target groups. The increasing role of the media in shaping public opinion, consciousness and perception shows that the culture sector is increasingly encouraged to focus on the media. In the context of mediatization processes, the media as modus operandi affect cultural practices and social institutions, and encourage them to act according to the new market rules, and communicate with the target groups through different communication tools. In a mediated cyberspace, the development, distribution and consumption of culture products is also changing. Mediatization theory addressed in the article provides with a conceptual framework which is applied in the analysis of media and communication transformations taking place in culture sector.