Mediatization and Perceptions of the Media's Political Influence

One of the key concepts related to the media's increasing political influence is mediatization. It has even been described as a meta-process, on a par with other social change processes such as globalization and individualization. Despite the fact that the concept has been used for several decades, it remains however a concept referred to more often than properly defined and used to guide systematic empirical research. Against this background and based on the conceptualization of mediatization as a multi-dimensional concept, the purpose of this article is to investigate perceptions of the media's political influence among members of parliament and political news journalists at major national and regional media in Sweden. The results show that both groups attribute great influence to the media, in particular TV, newspapers and radio, and that both groups perceive TV and radio as influential as even the prime minister in terms of how often they manage to place a new issue highest on the political agenda. The results of the study are discussed in light of the theory of an ongoing mediatization of politics.