Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Scope and variations of the concept of mediatization 27 particular characteristics of temporality and spatialization, [...] and allows hybridizations with other forms in force in the real- historical” (SODRÉ, 2006, p. 21). Techno-mediations, the mediations produced by the media , in addition to their communicational dimension and the circulation of information, act, in this way, in the very construc- tion of reality: Mediatization, thus, implies a particular qualifica - tion of life, a new way of the subject’s presence in the world, or, considering the Aristotelian qualifi - cation of life forms, a specific bios . In his Nicoma- chean Ethics, Aristotle conceives three forms of human existence ( bios ) in Pólis: bios theoretikos (contemplative life), bios politikos (political life), and bios apolaustikos (pleasant life). Mediatization can be thought of as a new bios , a kind of fourth ex- istential sphere, with its qualification (a “techno- culture”), historically justified by the imperative to redefine the bourgeois public space (SODRÉ, 2006, p. 22). For the author, therefore, mediatization, or the fourth bios , assumes a profound meaning, characterizing a new mode of subject’s presence in the world (another anthropological con - dition), marked by its particular ethos and a set of characteris- tics: a generalized aestheticization of social life, with the preva- lence of form over semantic content; an exalting ethic of indi- vidual desire; submission to business and capital; new forms of relationship between individuals and concrete references (using the media to structure perceptions and cognitions); new forms of socialization. More recently, the presence of the concept has extend- ed to Brazilian communication researchers, with a special em- phasis on the contribution brought by professors of the Gradu- ate Program in Communication at UNISINOS 4 . Among them, José Luiz Braga (2006) draws attention to a double scope in the use of the term: in a sectorized approach, mediatization refers to 4 UNISINOS Graduate Program in Communication has a research line in Mediati- zation and Social Processes.