The Mediated Construction of Reality

Citation

Couldry, N., & Hepp, A. (2016). The Mediated Construction of Reality. Polity.

Chapter Summary

The book is 256 pages long, with eleven chapters (an introduction, three parts of three chapters each, and a conclusion), followed by notes, references and an index. Its starting point, according to the publisher, is that social theory needs to be completely rethought in a world of digital media and social media platforms driven by data processes. Fifty years after Berger and Luckmann's The Social Construction of Reality, the authors revisit how social theory can understand the processes through which an everyday world is constructed in and through media, drawing on Schütz, Elias and other social and media theorists. They ask whether the result is a social world that is stable and liveable or one that is increasingly unstable and unliveable.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The introduction states the problem and the lineage of the book: the classic account of the social construction of reality, and the question of what changes when media, and especially digital platforms and data, are involved in that construction.

Part I, Chapters 2–4: Constructing the Social World

Part I builds the theoretical base. Chapter 2, "The Social World as Communicative Construction", develops the idea that the social world is constructed through communication. Chapter 3, "History as Waves of Mediatization", places the present in a longer history, organised as successive waves of mediatization. Chapter 4, "How We Live With Media", turns to everyday experience of living with media.

Part II, Chapters 5–7: Dimensions of the Social World

Part II treats three dimensions: Chapter 5, "Space"; Chapter 6, "Time"; and Chapter 7, "Data". Data stands alongside space and time as a basic dimension of the social world, which fits the book's central concern with the data processes that drive digital platforms.

Part III, Chapters 8–10: Agency in the Social World

Part III moves from dimensions to agency. Chapter 8 examines the self, Chapter 9 collectivities and Chapter 10 order.

Chapter 11: Conclusion

The conclusion closes the book. The publisher frames the whole work around whether the media-made social world is stable and liveable or increasingly unstable and unliveable, so the conclusion is the natural place to look for the authors' answer.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–4

• Social construction of reality: the Berger and Luckmann framework that the book revisits.
• Communicative construction: the idea, in Chapter 2's title, that the social world is built through communication.
• Mediatization: the process traced in Chapter 3 as successive waves in history.

Chapters 5–7

• Space, time and data: the three dimensions of the social world that organise Part II.
• Data processes: the processes that drive digital media and social media platforms, which Chapter 7 treats as a dimension of the social world.

Chapters 8–11

• Self, collectivities and order: the three areas of agency covered in Part III.
• Liveable and unliveable social worlds: the question posed by the publisher and returned to in the conclusion.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear framework from a classic. The book is built around a recognisable reference point, Berger and Luckmann, and a progression from foundations (Part I) through dimensions (Part II) to agency (Part III) that makes the argument easy to follow in outline.
• Data as a dimension. Treating data as a chapter alongside space and time is a distinctive structural choice that brings the data processes behind digital platforms into the heart of social theory.
• Recognised influence. Ignas Kalpokas, reviewing the book in the LSE Review of Books (2017), expected it to prove a highly influential contribution to understandings of media today.
• Concise. At 256 pages the book offers a full theoretical statement in a manageable length.

Limitations

• Theoretical density. Kalpokas suggests that a less theoretically dense discussion might have been more accessible for readers.
• Theory first. The contents show a theoretical argument rather than a series of case studies, so readers looking for empirical platform studies will need other sources.
• Prior knowledge. The book draws on Schütz, Elias and other social and media theorists without a dedicated chapter introducing them, so a background in social theory helps.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the most theoretical book on the media and culture list. Media Studies: The Basics and Croteau and Hoynes's Media/Society are the introductions, the first a brief orientation and the second a full textbook organised around technology, industries, content and users. McQuail's Media and Mass Communication Theory is the comprehensive reference on theories of media. Fuchs's Social Media: A Critical Introduction covers social media as a social, economic and political system, including digital labour, surveillance and data, and Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a classic study of face-to-face interaction.

Couldry and Hepp make a good next step after an introduction and a reference text, and pair well with Goffman as a contrast between interaction in everyday settings and a social world built with media and data. Fuchs offers a critical angle on power, labour and surveillance on the same platforms.

How to Use This Book

It suits advanced undergraduates and graduate students with a course in media sociology or communication theory and some knowledge of social theory.

Read the introduction and Chapter 2 first, as they set out the central claim. Chapter 3 gives the historical frame and Chapter 4 the everyday one; read both before Part II, because the later chapters build on them. Part II can be read selectively: Chapter 7 for the argument about data, Chapters 5 and 6 for space and time. Part III suits readers interested in identity, community or social order. The conclusion is a good place to test your own view: decide whether you find the media-made social world liveable and which chapters of the book would support your answer.

A useful exercise while reading is to take one daily routine that involves a platform and describe it three times, once in terms of space, once of time and once of data, then ask what each Part III chapter (self, collectivities, order) adds. Pair the notes with one or two of the book's own references to Schütz, Elias or Berger and Luckmann, so that the theoretical lineage becomes concrete.