Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Ada C. Machado da Silveira 176 Figure 1. Media facilitate and structure virtual spaces for communication and action Source: Hjarvard (2012, p. 86). I understand that the strain between a centrifugal force and another centripetal accounts for a heteronomous tendency which subordinates the inherent autonomy at the local level to orders that are superior to it and that come from the (inter) national centralities of the bordering nation-States. The heter- onomous force also comes from globalized flows that affect free zones and port spaces of expression like the one we are consid- ering here. The homogenizing trend, typical of the reference me- dia, in turn, acts by inhibiting the differentiation coming from the local level, acting as a reducing force of its idiosyncrasy, lim- iting the expression and the communicative load of the local level in favor of an understanding favorable to the perspective of dominant political and cultural spheres at the national level. The perspective of local journalism, thus, submits to the frameworks produced by the reference media. The colonization of the border has peculiar aggrega- tions that are mobilized according to the heteronomous order implanted in different nation-States, articulated in conurbations and CUTs, understood as old and newways of sharing a common destiny at a distance from political and economic centers.