Mario Carlón 122 by another polarization, that of cultural values, especially regarding an issue that has divided Argentinian society for years, which is abortion. The controversy surrounding abortion has been going on for years since projects in favor of this issue had been rejected many times in parliament, but, in the year before the event analyzed here, one of those projects had managed to be approved by the Cámara Baja (Deputies) and had been about to be approved by the Cámara Alta (Senate), where it was finally rejected. This situation made it clear that the possibility that law in favor of abortion would eventually be approved had remained latent in 2019, in a context in which different social groups for and against abortion had mobilized intensely. It is important to note that the discussion on the subject had been intense, both in the mass media and on social media. We attach so much impor- tance to this issue because, as we will see next, the polarization concerning abortion was going to occupy a crucial place in the development of the event studied in 2020 because the President was going to communicate an important decision during his speech in front of the Congreso de la Nación: that he was going to send a bill in favor (an action that he carried out and which allowed the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law to finally be approved at the end of that same year). In this analysis, “humor” was not neglected, a usual generator of counter-currents of meaning on different current issues and, of course, regarding an event of such magnitude4. From a theoretical-analytical point of view, we con- sider each pole, both the political and the cultural, as spaces of identity construction and belonging that are radically affected, moment by moment, by mediatization and circulation. For us, these poles constantly unfold, build, and deconstruct in our con- temporaneity not only because they articulate upon consensual discourses but also because they support, even within the poles, the difference that circulation5 implies. 4 The analysis was performed by team members. The reference is included in the references: Damián Fraticelli, Cristian Gómez Blanco, and Bernardo Saldaña (2020). 5 Carlón, 2021.
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