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

Mario Carlón 248 organized in the media and polarized by the logic of media social networks, which segregate each user into communities in which everyone thinks alike and only receives information consistent with their positions. Based on this type of analysis, which advances in new objects and updates old debates, we must ask ourselves: is the power of algorithms enough to explain contemporary polariza- tion? We hypothesize that although these phenomena are pow- erful and operate specific dynamics, it is not enough . Investigat- ing why it is not enough is one of the central tasks of this work, as well as of the answers that we will try to outline. 4. The echo chamber holes The explanation of the motif why the argument of the echo chamber is not enough is due, in the first place, to the fact that social life, that which, as Calvo himself affirms, is more diverse than t e Twitter bubbles, never stopped 8 . In the period in which the case analyzed was developed, in all public and private spaces of Argentina, the death of Nisman was debated, which became a central theme of social life. Second, it is because no one lives only in the bubbles of social media. Networks are permanently permeated by con- tent produced by other media, which is the mass media - that have not disappeared. In the Nisman case, for example, during the forty days in which the data collection lasted, from which that graph was constructed, the broadcast of content about the Nisman case was incessant: hours and hours in prime time ra- dio and television (in addition to the coverage of portals, blogs, and newspapers). And many of these contents were shared, dis- cussed, and debated on social media networks 9 . In other words, 8 Interestingly, the comparison between social life on networks and outside of it in spatial, geographical, and even urban terms is also present in PARISSIER (2017 [2011], p. 215-249). 9 Between January 19 and 20, the major newspapers in Argentina dedicated their cover and main headline to Nisman’s death (not all of them covered the case on the 19th, some did on the 20th). For instance: Clarín, main title: “Politi- cal commotion: prosecutor Nisman found dead” (January 19), La Nación, main title: “Stupor and protests over the death of the prosecutor who denounced the President” (January 20); Página 12, “What was it that led you to kill yourself?” (January 20). Their principal columnists also wrote on the subject.