The convergence of digital media with broader communications systems — fibre optics, satellites and mobile computing technologies, and the ‘internet of things’ — means it is no longer possible to think of society without media, especially as media practices penetrate the fabric of everyday sociation. How does the proliferation of media promote, inflect and impede social change? New media technologies and practices are interlinked with transformations of governance and citizen identities with far-reaching implications for public policy. At the same time we are concerned with new forms of participation (co-creation, fandom, algorithm-driven consumption); changing transnational identities; the transformation of intimacies through the use of social media; and the impact of the proliferation and acceleration of media use on the perceptual and corporeal conditions of bodies and subjectivities. The Mediated Society theme investigates these entanglements to reveal critical perspectives that aim to shape policy and practices.