Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Mario Carlón 216 I – Introduction We are far from characterizing contemporary society. One can argue that this is because it is difficult to conceptualize an object that is only beginning to unfold over time, and it cer- tainly is. But there are other reasons as well. About images, one of them is that we have not yet es- tablished the conceptual and analytical dispositifs necessary to account for their new statutes, which must be thought in rela- tion to the new mediatization and circulation of meaning, phe- nomena that are intimately linked. In this text, we propose to contribute to the study of contemporary images by establishing some hypotheses. Regard- ing mediatization, we sustain that, regardless of the contribu- tions made, it is necessary to distance ourselves from the gen- eralist discourses that do not fully account for the basic system that enables the new conditions of circulation. What character- izes our time is the emergence of a set of specific images such as selfies, gifs, memes, vlogs, etc. But what should be the analytical approach applied to their study? Our thesis: it is necessary to abandon immanentist and production analyzes, favoring circu- lation. However, our time is also characterized by the survival of discourses that contain images that have left traces in dispositifs and languages generated in the deep history of mediatization have. It is to these phenomena that we refer when we speak of an increase in complexity. About circulation, we will distinguish two macro-pro- cesses: the new semiological guerilla and the overflowing circu- lation . And we will stop at two logics: the power of enunciators and the power of discourses . It will be within these developments that we will differentiate current life from modern, post-mod- ern, and contemporary emerging media images in their new and complex interaction.