Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Mario Carlón 218 The image illustrates how the four programs, from two of the principal open television channels in Argentina, compare the situation in the province of Santa Cruz with that of Venezue- la. The province of Santa Cruz was, for years, governed by Néstor Kirchner, then deceased, and is, at that time, governed by his sis- ter, Alicia Kirchner. It takes place in the context of conflict over late payment of wages and the start of classes that led to a con- frontation between protesters and the police at dawn on April 22. Two of the four programs that appear in the image are Los Leuco, by the journalist Alfredo Leuco (top right) and his son Di - ego, and Diario de Mariana, by Mariana Fabiani (bottom right), broadcast on Channel 13, owned by Grupo Clarín, with whom Kirchnerism maintained a fierce dispute since 2008. The other two are Animales sueltos, led by Alejandro Fantino (bottom left), and Intratables, by Santiago del Moro (top left), broadcast on Channel 2 (America). The reference to a “national chain” is due to an accusation made against CFK, who, in the last years of her mandate, frequently used this mode of transmission to com- municate. Historically, national broadcasting occurs primarily when the President speaks. In these cases, all the channels aban- don their usual programming and retransmit the official broad - cast. From the critical, non-official, and anti-Kirchnerist media, this use of the national network was considered authoritarian and abusive. The fact that the former President wrote that the image show a “national chain (of lies)” can be read as a response to the criticism she received. One can interpret that, for her, the private media, self-considered independent, also constitute a chain because they spread homogeneously and simultaneously an anti-Kirchnerist point of view. The scenario in which the pub- lication of this discourse occurs is one of a polarization between Kirchnerists and anti-Kirchnerists that characterizes Argentine society since 2008. • Twitter: On the same day, Santiago del Moro, host of Intratables, publishes a tweet in which he says: "I ask you for respect: do not call me a liar." 2 2 According to Pedro Perucca’s reconstruction, which we will comment on later, Del Moro warns that the image was apocryphal. Due to the messages he receives, he admits indignation and expresses: “I respectfully inform you that the Intrat- ables graph x which Mrs. Kirchner has accused us of lying about is FALSE, it is