ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a broad view of the transformation of media from the early nineteenth century onwards. It pays attention to the huge expansion of the press and its global ramifications, as well as to the numerous other forms of communication, from stereographic images to panoramas. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, almost all media became global phenomena and assumed hybrid forms. The chapter ends with a discussion on the cultural impact of increasing mediatization, paying attention to hybrid forms of media culture and intermediality. It also analyses mediatization as a historical metaprocess – a grand narrative that has been used in the same manner as globalization, urbanization or modernization.
