Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

23 Scope and variations of the concept of mediatization Vera V. França 1 Abstract: This text, organized in four parts, discusses the emergence and the possibilities brought by the concept of mediatization. Initially, it seeks to delineate a brief trajectory of the concept in Brazil, and then resumes and systematizes the main trends in its treatment. In the third section, it promotes an approximation and distinction of close concepts, such as mass culture, mediation. The final part covers the ef - fort to rescue the main guidelines pointed out by the reflections about mediatization, positioning itself for a kind of approach that seeks to intertwine communicative interactions, technological apparatuses, and their respective socio-historical-cultural contexts. Keywords: Mediatization. Communication theories. Media theory. I – Introduction The creation and strength of the concepts are the re- sults of two interconnected movements. The first – which ex - plains why they appear at a given time – are changes, in reality, the emergence of new dynamics in the order of the world, or a more acute perception of aspects that were already present, but which are becoming more prominent at a determined time. The second is of an epistemic order and refers to how successful is the reflective elaboration that seeks to deal with these aspects or problems of the empirical world in the task of understand- 1 Professor and researcher at the Graduate Program in Social Communication. E-mail: veravfranca@yahoo.com.br.