Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Pedro Gilberto Gomes 60 makes it impossible, for a correct dimensioning of the challeng- es posed by the current media environment. The dilemma experienced today, within a systemic and complex view, is to overcome sectorized, fragmented, and par- tial approaches to understand reality. In this dimension, the sum of the different parts does not provide knowledge of the whole. Social totality is not achieved by adding the vision of the distinct isolated areas. In this way, the mediatization process of society chal- lenges researchers from different sciences to structure an inter- pretive scheme, a result of working together, in the awareness that technological devices are only a small part – the tip of the iceberg – of a new world configured by the mediatization pro- cess of society 18 . Today we are experiencing an epochal change, with the creation of a media bios 19 that has a profound impact on the social fabric. A new communicational ecology 20 appears. It is a virtual bios. More than a techno-interaction, a new way of be- ing in the world is emerging, represented by the mediatization of society, which presents a new ambiance that, although based on the process developed so far, means a qualitative leap, a fun- damental change in the mode of being and acting. To grasp the totality of the object, the researcher must take distance from the distinct manifestations to contemplate the mosaic of the formed environment. Macrophenomena, in the ho- listic dimension, add new visions that transcend the singular and allow the formation of the image of what is structured in the so- ciety in mediatization. The meta- media reflection leads us to con - template the issue of mediatization as a point of arrival in the evo- lution and development of what has been called “media society.” The trajectory from the media society to the society in mediatization is a slow and gradual process that develops in 18 Cf. Luhmann, “[…] the idea that all we are talking about in each case is an an- nexe to other function systems which make use of the mass media as a technical means of dissemination is not particularly convincing either. […] As an effective form of social communication, they cannot simply be reduced to mere technol- ogy.” (LUHMANN, N. The reality of the media . São Paulo: Paulus, 2005. p. 119). 19 In the fortunate expression of researcher Muniz Sodré. 20 The ideas that follow and support the reflection were developed in: GOMES, P. G. The philosophy and ethics of communication in the mediatization process of society . São Leopoldo: Ed. UNISINOS, 2006. See, mainly, chapter 6.