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

Pedro Gilberto Gomes 78 a collective work by the Research Line Mediatization and Social Processes, at the Graduate Program in Communication Sciences at Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos 8 . For him, language and circulation also belong to the “con- ceptual stock” of functionalist social science dis- ciplines, which have focused on questions about communicational phenomena 9 . In this binomial, circulation occupies a specific place, although it has acquired a more “problematic dimension in a more recent context,” that of “society in the process of mediati- zation 10 .” In this sense, “circulation is conceived as a region that works according to processes in which marks of its activity can be presented 11 .” For Fausto Neto, what would characterize circulation in the context of mediatization would be, on the one hand, its con- dition of a ‘structure that unites,’ by producing cou- plings of techno-discursive practices, at the same time that it would set them in motion, constituting itself both as the source and as the dynamics and process of new communicational complexity. 12 In the perspective assumed by Fausto Neto regarding circulation, we see that we are facing a concept that becomes important to study and understand society in the process of me- diatization systemically. 3.2. Interactional referral process The interactional referral process is a theme and concept dear to José Luiz Braga 13 . For him, the mediatization of society in- 8 FAUSTO NETO, Antônio. Como as linguagens afetam e são afetadas na circula- ção? In: BRAGA, José Luiz; FERREIRA, Jairo; FAUSTO NETO, Antônio; GOMES, Pedro Gilberto. 10 Perguntas para a produção de conhecimento em comunicação . São Leopoldo: Editora Unisinos, 2013. p. 43-62. 9 Ibidem, p. 43. 10 Ibidem, p.46. 11 Ibidem, p. 47. 12 Ibidem, p. 49. 13 Professor at the Graduate Program in Communication Sciences at UNISINOS and researcher in the Research Line Mediatization and Social Processes.