Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

43 Mediatization and journalism Muniz Sodré 1 Abstract: The withering of parliamentary representation with- in the scope of mediatization has enormous practical effects upon liberal journalism. There is a growing number of questions about the prospects of a free journalistic activity capable of ex - ercising a relevant mediating function in the public agenda. This is an institutional function midway between the political aspects of civil society and the organizational aspects. Under the rule of robots the newspaper might as well disappear as a republican entity. Keywords: Liberal journalism. Mediatization. Parliamentary representation. Public agenda. Automata. I will stick here to the relationship between mediatiza- tion and journalism. For me, a critical issue on mediatization stud- ies is to investigate how power relations can offer raw material for a new type of policy, taking into account the impoverishment of parliamentary representation in the context of mediatization, which is power without a visible policy, but surely a power that deepens social control. We know now that the algorithmic power is enormous, but not unlimited. A relevant fact is that, between 2009 and 2011, the United States military intelligence services in - vested many millions of dollars in algorithmic models to predict political disturbances on a global scale. Theywere not even able to predict the phenomenon of the “Arab Spring”, which destabilized old political structures and led to the overthrow of governments. Thus, in the face of the growing hoarding of social life by economics (finance) and technology, it is pertinent to specu - 1 Emeritus Profess or at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. E-mail: sodremu niz@hotmail.com .