Communicative Figurations of the Good Life: Ambivalences of the Mediatization of Homelessness and Transnational Migrant Families

First paragraph: The concept of “mediatization” has been the focus of considerable debate and reflection for scholars in media and communication seeking to understand an increasingly media related world (Couldry & Hepp, 2013; Hjarvard 2013; Lundby, 2014). In theoretical work, mediatization is defined as transformations in media and communications that relate to social and cultural change as a societal metaprocess akin to individualization, urbanization, and rationalization (Hepp, 2013a; Krotz 2009). These reflections are increasingly complemented by empirical studies investigating transformations in institutions as well as social and cultural practices on different scales over varying historical periods. This includes the longue durée of human history, the consequences of media for modernity and the more recent emergence of a mediated network society (Jensen, 2013; Livingstone, 2009; Livingstone & Lunt, 2014).