Abstract
This chapter promotes a reflection on the ways in which the media affect communicative practices of organizations, especially in the construction of their visibility. It explores the concept of visibility and how this phenomenon has been changing with the development of the media, especially with social media. The theoretical framework covers the mediatic and digital context, including other concepts: organizational communication, strategic communication, mass media, and social media. Following this, the main focus is on visibility, by considering visibility as a social and media phenomenon and its particularities in social media. Implications of these issues for organizations and their communicative practices are reported, and some solutions and recommendations focused on a strategic and responsible performance by organizations in managing their (in)visibility. Some directions for future research are listed and then the conlusion returns to some central ideas.
TopBackground
The current social configuration places the media as part of the functioning of other institutions, a phenomenon recognized as mediatization (Hjarvard, 2013/2014). “The growing integration of various media into ever-more institutional contexts and into the situated interaction
of daily life reflects an intensified form of mediatization” (Hjarvard, 2019, p. 259). Such a phenomenon is considered essential for the interpretation of the communicational reality experienced by organizations because it favors the understanding of the relationship between media and society at a time when “media logic” becomes the basis of social relations (Barichello, 2014).
To enable a full understanding of this process of change (Heep, 2014), the notions of medium/media, mediation, interaction and their relationship with mediatization are detailed. By exemplifying uses of the terms “mediation” and “mediatization” according to different theorists, Heep explains that “... ‘mediation’ is a concept to theorise the process of communication process in total; ‘mediatization’, in contrast, is a more specific term to theorise media related change” (2014, p. 47).
In other words, “mediation” refers to all communication between two parties through a medium, which implies interaction (Hjarvard, 2013/2014; Sodré, 2013). “Mediatization” refers to mediation performed through a particular type of interaction, but “technointeraction” is characterized by “… a technological and marketing prosthesis of a sensible reality”, i.e. the medium (Sodré, 2013). Hence, unlike mediations, mediatization does not cover the entire social field, but is the combination of multiple institutions with the media.
According to Sodré (2013, p. 20), “...medium is the communicational flow, coupled with a technical device...”. This understanding is in line with the one proposed by Verón (1997), who understands communication medium as a technological device added to specific conditions of production and reception practices of the messages that this device allows to produce and circulate. In addition, Hjarvard (2013/2014) highlights that the media do not only include technologies, but also the social and aesthetic forms that interfere in the way they are used.
Based on the researchers’ considerations, it is understood that the media (media or medium) are more than just a channel designed for interaction, as they constitute a type of ambience structured with their own codes, as pointed out by Sodré (2013). The term “media” is used, according to Heep (2014), to refer to the various types of media that we use to enhance communication, such as television, newspapers and digital social networks.
In addition, the change accelerated at the end of the 20th century towards “...a given phase or situation in the overall development of society and culture in which the logic of the media exerts a particularly predominant influence on other social institutions” (Hjarvard, 2013/2014, p. 31) configures the phenomenon reported here as mediatization.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Media Visibility: What is visible in the media about something or someone and the process that makes it possible.
Media Ecosystem: The set formed by the media, which, as units of a system, affect each other.
Social media: The media made possible by the emergence of the internet, which enable the wide circulation of information by its users.
Strategic Communication: An organizational communication planned in line with the organization's objectives and its management, which seeks excellence in the relationship with strategic audiences.
Social Networks: A type of social media organized in a network form, which allows extensive interaction between users.
Media: A means of communication, a communicational environment, through which information/symbolic materials circulate that make the process of communication possible.
Mediatization: A social stage, resulting from the emergence of the media and the expansion of its role in society, so that the logic of the media permeates other areas.