(3) Amalgamation
Amalgamation refers to a third dimension of mediatization. Here, activities related to the
media become integrated with non-media activities, ensuring thatmedia-related concerns
have a direct impact on non-media activities. When communications professionals, for
instance, become involved in the design of new policies, as is found to be the case (Young
2007; Strömbäck and Van Aelst 2013), the question of external communication directly
affects the internal process of policy-making.Communicating policies and crafting policies
become mingled, amalgamated, activities. Again, two different aspects of amalgamation
can be discerned. On the one hand, (a) media activities may become amalgamated with
individuals’ work assignments. On the other hand, (b) media activities may also be amalgamated
with other, more general activities of an agency.