mediality

Mediality is the quality or condition of existing as a medium or of being mediated. In media studies and related disciplines, mediality refers to the ways in which media technologies, forms, and practices shape perception, communication, and social experience. It focuses on mediation itself rather than only the content produced through media.

The term derives from medium, via Latin medius meaning middle, with the suffix -ity to form a noun. It signals the central role of the medium in structuring meaning and encounter.

Theoretical usage of mediality analyzes how technologies, platforms, and physical infrastructures influence what is possible to say, see, or remember. It foregrounds materiality, interface, and protocol, and often engages with concepts such as mediation, technicity, and affordances. It is distinct from immediacy, emphasizing mediatedness as constitutive rather than incidental.

Domains and examples include communication studies, where mediality examines messaging through smartphones, social networks, and broadcasting; art and literature, where it considers how a work’s medium shapes its reception; and anthropology or ethnography, where it looks at how media mediate social relations and cultural memory. Digital humanities may study algorithmic mediation and data ecology as aspects of contemporary mediality.

Critique and scope: Mediality is a descriptive lens that illuminates the mediation process and how it conditions meaning. It does not replace analysis of content or actor agency, but rather highlights material conditions, infrastructures, and practices that enable and constrain what can be communicated and experienced.