Should we, and by what categories, attempt to organize the media universe – A (media) linguistic perspective

In all areas of contemporary life, we are constantly confronted with diverse forms of media communication that emerge, diversify, hybridize, transform, and eventually disappear from circulation. In response, scholars seek to organize this dynamic media universe by describing communicative transformations, comparing older and newer forms, and developing new terms, concepts, and definitions, often alongside the recontextualization of traditional categories. Given the complexity of media messages, the multifaceted relationships between communication participants, and the rapid pace of media change, we argue that media linguistics in particular requires coherent categories and harmonized analytical approaches that enable at least a partial structuring of the communicative space. Against this background, the article examines selected attempts to organize media communication within research conducted in the German-speaking cultural sphere and in Polish linguistics. The aim is to assess whether and to what extent media-linguistic research seeks to systematize the media space, to critically evaluate existing proposals for media stratification, and to reflect on their terminological, conceptual, and operational foundations. Furthermore, the article proposes selected terminological-conceptual solutions intended to facilitate navigation in media analysis and outlines possibilities for a typological approach to media phenomena. These considerations are developed from a contrastive research perspective.