Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

Mario Carlón 240 that characterizes a mediatized society results in an accelera- tion of divergence. In the second, we will update this analysis in the light of the “contemporary Verón,” which insists on the in- crease in divergence; and we will ask ourselves about the char- acteristics of the time. In the third, we will review the theses of the echo chamber and personalization via algorithms, which was used to explain polarization on Twitter in the framework of the analysis of a major mediated political event in Argentina. In the fourth, we will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this type of analysis to explain the contemporary polarizations. In the fifth, we will question to what extent the principles of equality and freedom can be the “amalgamation” of the current polarization. In the fifth, we will question to what extent the principles of equality and freedom can be the “amalgamation” of the current polarization. We will analyze polarization as a space-time phenomenon that works in “two times”; and ask ourselves if these principles enable complex social phenomena of diverse origin, such as political, environmental or ecologi- cal, and gender, to converge in determined contexts, building specific polarization scenarios. In the end, we will argue that the new mediatization and circulation of meaning have gen- erated scale leaps in the instability of individuals and that this instability is complementary to the current processes of polarization. 1. Mediatization and postmodern circulation – the role of individuals As a result of the expansion of studies on mediatiza- tions, currently, there is a certain consensus concerning the di- agnosis made by Eliseo Verón (2001 [1984], 1995 [1986]) that in postmodernity, there is a transition from a media society to a mediatized one . This transition implied that, in the conceptual- ization of the mass media, we moved from the domain of repre- sentative logics to the logics of production of meaning: the me- dia stopped being seen as more or less distorting “mirrors” of social reality to being considered meaning-producer dispositifs and builders of events (VERÓN, 1987 [1981]).