Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Jairo Ferreira 262 3. Inversely, the semiotic/technical/social media of occupation of territories are from another order of media (although they are means of communica- tion: a house, a car, clothing, etcetera ), which is not the object of this investigation. The formulation that material means are semiotic/ technical/social means that it is not just about material tech - niques and technologies. Even considering the media in this tri- adic perspective, we agree with the proposition that there is no linearity and determination between media and uses. Uses are a field of possibilities and impossibilities. Access, usage, practices, and social appropriations con- dition the configuration of media dispositifs . In this sense, the concept of semiotic/technical/social dispositifs refers to the me- dia consolidated in social practices and appropriations. Many stand in the way, as we have said. Others become practices and appropriations and then are abandoned (the case of public land- line phones, which had their uses scrapped with the advent of cell phones). Why are some media consolidated in terms of so- cial practices and others not? This question, in our perception, is related to the innovation cycle. The answers do not refer to the potential features and operations, but especially to the cycle of imagery and achievements. In this process, there is a detail that is the transition from practices to appropriations. There is also a dégradé here. The appropriations that we consider to be the most intense are those that take place in specialized production systems. Net- works, for example, have been appropriated by several specialist systems (which manifests in the form of brands: Facebook , Ins- tagram , etcetera ). But there are other, less intense, intermediate appropriations that use specialist systems and their brands to customize specific uses for other brands (a page on Face at ser- vice of another brand, for example). From the perspective of the classic discussion, it is these specialist systems named as brands that constitute the new dispositifs , overcoming (integrating, de- nying, and renewing) the hegemonic dispositifs in the last cen- tury (print, radio, cinema, and television). The dispositif , when nominated, is a candidate for the media institution and starts to