Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Mediatization, polis, and frontier events: analysis of the newsworthiness about the CUT BRA-PY-AR 175 In a previous study (SILVEIRA, 2007), I pointed out the existence of the local-international communication network, by connecting different spaces, which is one of the characteristics of the articulation proper to mediatization. In CUT BRA-PY-AR there is a Babel of languages, alphabets, and religions that inter- act daily: • Chinese characters and Sino-Tibetan language speakers; • Arabic alphabet with Arabic speakers from Leba- non, Syria, Palestine and other countries; • Latin alphabet and Guarani , Spanish, Portuguese and English speakers. In the same text (SILVEIRA, 2007), I pointed out that Brazilian frontiers, when communicationally constituting the local-international network, become examples of spaces where the dimensions of crossings of horizontality and verticality are emphasized. Its particularity stems from the connection to the international dimension, where contacts between different (vertical) nation-States predominate, practiced by the local in- terest of municipalities that, foreign among themselves, in their diverse nationalities, affect each other in a set of common and interdependent (horizontal) problems. Furthermore, it high- lights the flow inherent to economic globalization, putting the values of horizontality in check, subordinating them to transna- tional flows. Therefore, we stress that, from a communicational per- spective, its particularity is produced as a result of character- istics, specificities, and contingencies, expressed in the several languages and alphabets already mentioned. The communica- tional practices affected by the culture of digital convergence align local activities (horizontal) to the precedence (or not) of messages from large communication groups present in the re- spective nation-States, as well as from metropolises on other continents (vertical). Following this perspective, I understand that it is rel- evant to consider the scheme of Hjarvard (2012), pertinent to the understanding of mediatization, and the forces that compete with it (Figure 1):