Networks, society, and polis: epistemological approaches on mediatization

Book excerpt: This book is one of the results of the II International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes. The II International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes had a program developed at two levels: Debate panels, with invited researchers – five tables with the participation of researchers from Sweden (1), Russia (1), Portugal (1), Argentina (1), and Brazil (6). The schedule of the II Seminar and its structure are available at https://www.midiaticom.org/seminario-midiatizacao/grade-de-programacao-2018/. Intotal, there were 15 hours of debates at the five debate panels. This second event gave continuity to the first International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes, which also had guest researchers. In the first seminar, the five panels were attended by researchers from France (3), Denmark (1), Argentina (2), and Brazil (4). See: http://www.midiaticom.org/seminariointernacional/programacao-2016/. Therefore, methodologically, the Seminar takes place in the articulation of debate panels with international guests and working groups, with the presence of researchers, doctors, doctoral students, Masters, and master’s degree students. We emphasize that, still in the scope of training processes, master’s and doctoral students, masters and doctors, post-doctoral students and post-doctors, and members of the organizing Research Group take part in them as reviewers, in a blind evaluation, of the expanded abstracts submitted by graduates with lower titles – under the coordination of researchers/professors of the Research Group on Mediatization and Social Processes. They evaluated (in a group of more than three dozen reviewers) each of the works submitted by colleagues with training at a lower level, with classification grades, which resulted in the approved papers. Then, they were grouped by the organizing committee, successively, until the event’s working groups were formed. A total of 237 abstracts were submitted. They were selected in the following proportion of participants: 21% of professors/researchers; 33% doctors and doctoral students; 33% masters and master’s students; 13% graduates and undergraduate students, linked to scientific initiation research project and/or with research results of a senior research project. In the first seminar, in 2016, there were 250 submissions by authors and 217 expanded abstracts. Out of these, around 188 works were selected. At both events, half of the participants were from universities in other states (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais, mainly). Among its results, in addition to the training processes in the course of its realization, we emphasize its consolidation in a library of reflections, in the form of complete articles of the presentations in Working Groups and books published in e-book format (with chapters produced by the participants of the debate panels). The expanded abstracts of the event are available at https://midiaticom.org/anais/index.php/seminario-midiatizacao-resumos. The full articles are available at https://midiaticom.org/anais/index.php/seminario-midiatizacao-artigos. This book of the Debate Panels of the II Seminar, in this e-book edition, is available not only in the project collection (https://www.midiaticom.org/e-books/) but also at FACOS UFSM (https: / /www.ufsm.br/editoras/facos/publicacoes/). We reiterate our thanks to CAPES and FAPERGS for the financial support, which is essential for to enable this proposal of conversation via research, both theoretical and empirical, carried out by its participants.