Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Debating mediatization 57 call into question the concept of mediatization. Political actors were emancipated in the face of the operation of the mass me- dia. Why should they adapt to the logic of the media, and adapt their concerns and messages to the rules of journalistic produc - tion? Now, they can bypass the media and go directly to the pub- lic without further mediation 13 . The logical question is: are we facing the end of me- diatization? In conclusion, Schulz asserts that if we are ready to abandon the concept of media logic as a notion to organize the message in the television era, we will also be about to abandon the idea of mediatization 14 . For him, when examining the trans- formation of political communication in the internet age, it is more important to analyze its consequences than how to name the process of change 15 . In this sense, the consequence of the change process, for him, points out to the end of mediatization. We could agree with Schulz if, like him and others, we considered mediatization as the use of the media and submission to its logic. In this case, when social media emancipate social actors (in this case, politi- cians) from the power of the logic of the mass media. However, as we have already developed in several plac- es 16 , we are no longer facing the phenomenon of using techno- logical devices to transmit the message, nor as mediators of the relationship of individuals with reality. On the contrary, what the development of digital media is creating is a new ambiance, which, in turn, gives way to a new way of being in the world. The consequence of this is that instead of watching the end of mediatization, we are only on the threshold of its full develop- ment. What kind of society will be born? What way of living will be established? Only time and its evolution will tell. From the perspective of a new ambiance, the theme has not yet been sufficiently explored, as it goes beyond the mere re - flection on the media and its role in society. This conception of 13 Cf. ibid. 14 Cf. ibid, p. 8. 15 Ibid., p. 8. 16 More recently: FAXINA, E.; GOMES, P. G. Midiatização: um novo modo de ser e viver em sociedade. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2016; GOMES, P. G. From Media to Me- diatization . São Leopoldo: Ed. UNISINOS, 2017.