This article seeks to demonstrate that, by around 1887, Charles S. Peirce had already developed a conceptual scheme structurally equivalent to the Semiotic Nonagon. The analysis is based on an examination of a diagram produced by Peirce, whose study makes it possible to identify conceptual and formal correspondences both with the Peirce Scheme proposed by Juan A. Magariños de Morentin and with the Semiotic Nonagon. The paper shows that, although these developments were originally conceived without direct knowledge of the scheme produced by Peirce, they share the same organization based on the articulation of three correlates and three trichotomies that make it possible to describe the nine interrelated aspects of the sign. Drawing on a comparative analysis of the diagrams and of examples such as the weather vane, the article discusses some oversimplified interpretations of Peircean typology and proposes that these categories be considered simultaneous aspects of the semiotic process. Within this framework, the Semiotic Nonagon is presented as a logical and operational tool that makes it possible to map the complexity of conceptual and empirical phenomena through a relational representation of the sign’s different aspects. Finally, the article explores the relevance of this model in the contemporary context of artificial intelligence (AI), pointing out that, although both algorithmic systems and analytical devices can reorganize large bodies of information, the formulation of interpretive hypotheses still depends on the intervention of human intelligence.
Este artículo sostiene que la semiótica de Peirce puede entenderse también como una teoría de la comunicación cuando se la considera dentro de sus fundamentos filosóficos más amplios. En lugar de tratar la semiótica como una simple clasificación de signos, el texto la sitúa dentro del proyecto de Peirce de una filosofía científica basada en una lógica de los signos de máxima generalidad. Desde esta perspectiva, la semiosis se extiende más allá del lenguaje humano a todos los procesos en los que los signos actúan. El carácter dialógico del pensamiento proporciona el modelo proto-comunicativo del cual emerge la comunicación. Peirce toma la conversación como caso paradigmático de la acción sígnica y abstrae de ella la estructura lógica de la semiosis, transformando la tríada emisor–mensaje–intérprete en la relación objeto–signo–interpretante. El artículo concluye que la comunicación no explica la semiosis; por el contrario, los fenómenos comunicativos deben entenderse a partir de los conceptos semióticos fundamentales de objeto, signo e interpretante.
Este número de InMediaciones de la Comunicación busca presentar la obra del filósofo estadounidense Charles S. Peirce y promover aún más, en Latinoamérica, la investigación inspirada en el pragmatismo y la semiótica de Charles Sanders Peirce en los diversos ámbitos que conforman el campo de los estudios de la comunicación en su sentido más amplio.
In view of the dominant and increasingly controversial position occupied by media-based information and opinion channels in contemporary culture, it is easy to neglect the semiotic basis from which they have evolved. In all this superabundant exchange of information it is possible, first, to imagine erroneously that this all began with Web 2.0 and, second, not to realize that there is a basic process at work, a process often glossed over when it isn’t conveniently ignored —and this even in papers and monographs purporting to explain things semiotic— namely the process of semiosis. Within a strictly Peircean conception of the process, the sign is described as its “central”, mediating element. In this view, then, media both in earlier manifestations and in their present-day instances communicate information by signs functioning within the process of semiosis. Given that by 1905 Peirce had begun to define the sign itself as a medium, it is of theoretical interest to examine the relation that might hold between Peirce’s original definitions and the media so influential in everyday life today. To this end, the paper reviews Peirce’s conception of the sign as medium, how such a medium is perceived and how the sign comes to be understood within the process of semiosis. Finally, it examines ways in which semiosis can be related to the concepts of intentionality and agency discernible in his late classifications of the sign.
Peirce’s semiotic may help in explaining the process of mediation, key to the study of media. As an essential feature of semiosis, signs mediate between two determinative processes: the sign by the object and the interpretant by the sign. The determinative process is transitive. The object determines the sign, and the sign determines the interpretant in a way that the object representatively determines the interpretant. That which is carried through the transitive relation is the form of the dynamical object, initially meaningless but, once represented in the sign in an interpretable manner, can produce a meaningful effect, an interpretant for some sign agency. Additionally, I argue that the two processes of determination are themselves mediative processes. The sign’s medium—the sign vehicle as Peirce calls it— mediates the determination of signs by objects, and what Peirce calls collateral information, mediates the determination of interpretants by signs. The latter is understood as the relevant collection of existing interpretants that act like a schema for interpretation. I conclude by suggesting that the fault in Peirce’s semiotic is lack of appreciation for the role of the sign’s medium in mediation, which can be supplemented by the good work of media studies.
The paper presents an outline of Charles S. Peirce’s communication in seven chapters: (1) “The sources” identifies the main passages and papers of Peirce’s philosophical writings on communication, (2) “Studies in Peirce’s theory of communication: State of the art” is a survey of writings on Peirce’s communication theory since the 1890s, (3) “The theatrical model of the dialogue,” deals with Peirce’s conception dialogue as the model of communication in general, (4) “The invisible hand of the sign and its double role in communication,” is about the semiotic agency of the sign (words, arguments, messages) in the scenario of communication, (5) endeavors to answer the question of “Why words are not the tools of their communicators?,” (6) is about “The paradox of the mutual inaccessibility of communicating minds,” and (7) about “The commens and how communication becomes possible after all.”
Este artículo explora una dialéctica de la indicialidad teorizada de diversas maneras en diferentes teorías semióticas como praxis enunciativa (como en la semiótica de la Escuela de París) o el hecho lingüístico total, los órdenes indiciales y el enregistro (como en la antropología lingüística norteamericana), extendiendo estos conceptos para reflexionar sobre el proceso histórico mediante el cual diferentes tipos de coherencia textual (icónica/estética, indexical/interaccional y simbólica/denotacional) son mediatizados y sedimentados virtualmente como modelos culturales (es decir, como estilos estéticos, registros y géneros narrativos). Como estudio de caso, examino el destino histórico del destello de lente (lens flare) en el cine estadounidense. Los destellos de lente son el resultado de la refracción de la luz dentro de la lente de una cámara que deja estelas en la imagen. Considerado en su momento una imperfección en la estética de los estudios de Hollywood de la década de 1940, los cineastas no comerciales del “Nuevo Hollywood” de las décadas de 1960 y 1970 adoptaron el destello de lente —entre otras técnicas estéticas— como marcadores de un realismo más auténtico. Directores posteriores fusionaron esta estética cinematográfica del rodaje en vivo con los géneros de ciencia ficción y efectos especiales espectaculares, recurriendo a esta estética o estilo en contextos donde, de hecho, no se utilizaban lentes. Ahora, como tradición dominante, los destellos de lente perduran en videojuegos, películas de animación y efectos especiales digitales. Rastrear esta historia revela el surgimiento, la estabilización y la transformación de normas semióticas virtuales mediante sus entextualizaciones, una dialéctica entre la “invención de la tradición” y la “tradicionalización de la invención”. Para comprender esto, es necesario discernir la interacción de estas dimensiones semióticas (textualidad estética y su estilización, textualidad interaccional/pragmática y su enregistro, textualidad denotativa/narrativa y su generificación). En particular, sostengo que el motor de esta dialéctica son los procesos indiciales sociales de enregistro, es decir, que la indicialidad sirve como la puerta de entrada entre lo icónico y lo simbólico, lo posible y lo general, lo virtual y lo materializado.
Pocos investigadores contemporáneos reúnen en su trabajo la erudición y sagacidad analítica del legado semiótico del lógico C. S. Peirce con la fundamental tarea del intelectual crítico. Los aportes que el profesor e investigador canadiense Marc Champagne hace en la actualidad al desafío no menor de la enseñanza universitaria en la época de la Inteligencia Artificial (IA) son de tanto valor como su crítica a la práctica académica de la cancelación de aquel pensamiento con el cual no concordamos en el universo académico. La extraordinaria amplitud de intereses científicos, sociales y culturales del Prof. Champagne se ve reflejada en este intercambio que, a causa de la considerable distancia geográfica que separa a los interlocutores, fue hecho de modo virtual. No obstante, el vigor y tenor de sus respuestas, comentarios y aportes inesperados enriquecieron de tal modo la entrevista que sus lectores tendrán la experiencia de un diálogo cara a cara, sin pérdida alguna de la dinámica que produce la cercanía. El lector encontrará una reunión infrecuente y refrescante de la semiótica peirceana con preocupaciones de nuestro mundo de la vida como la educación, la ética, la verdad y la comunicación mediática.
This paper offers a conceptual cartography which reviews the classic problem of alienation, based on a materialist critique drawing on Etienne Balibar's concept of the objective imaginary and Louis Althussers' theory of reproduction. With the aim of developing rigorous categories for an analysis of the current conjuncture, the theses that predict a tendency toward desubjectification based on progressive total alienation are discussed and replaced by the conjecture of a crisis in the humanist historical modulation of alienation coextensive to the tendential material deployment of new concrete modulations of subjectivation, of an informational nature. This complex process finds its material conditions in the historical alliance between financial capital and information technologies, and generates new trends in the reproduction of capital. These tendencies operate by erasing and reorganizing the boundaries between the economic and the political that used to underpin the imaginary device of the alliance between capital and the law. The dislocation of the boundary that separates social experience, politics, and economics highlights the historical nature of the structural articulation between economic individuation and legal subjectivation, and tends to undermine the combined effectiveness ofl abor exploitation and humanistic subjectivation.
The article will reflect on how mediatization practices highlight the relationship between the harm caused by environmental extractivism and its impact on health, especially inthecontext of rare diseases inLatinAmerica, with an emphasis on the Brazilian reality. Throughout the epistemological debate on the very concept of mediatization, we will discuss how the destruction of nature since the Industrial Revolution has empowered capitalist logic at a high cost to the planet. Next, we will raise hypotheses and official figures on the worsening of the current panorama of orphan diseases in the world and, finally, we will present a multidisciplinary project of collective construction and counter-hegemonic perspective between the University and the Social Movement that aims to minimize the "disintegration" of information on rare diseases: Rares Health Platform.
This publication constitutes an initial exploration of a set of data belonging to an ongoing research project that investigates the platformization of discourses on the public sphere in contemporary societies. Within this framework, a unique case study was constructed relating to a series of violent events that occurred in the city of Rosario (Province of Santa Fe, Argentina), publicly described as "narco-terrorism." The objective of this article is to describe and characterize Instagram and Facebook posts relating to the case from a selection of local and national news portals, as well as from a group of political figures. Along with the refinement of the tools that enable the capture of digital data as input for research, the sets with which we work are becoming increasingly voluminous, and with this come difficulties or limitations related to the time and resources for direct observation of these materials. That is why, first of all, the work carried out to access the posts, their collection, and processing is presented in detail. Second, the different ways in which the various accounts are presented on each platform are identified, and the basic composition of the publication unit is analyzed as an essential step toward a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the materials observed.
This article examines how the local dimension shapes mediatized news consumption practices in large urban areas. Based on an empirical study conducted in the Northern Zone of Greater Buenos Aires (Argentina), the article examines which channels and media residents use to access local information and how these differ from those used for national or international news. The hypothesis posits that consumption practices vary according to the local or non-local character of information. The theoretical framework articulates two axes: transformations in media consumption underconditions of deep mediatization (Couldry&Hepp, 2017) and the reconceptualization of the local as a sociocultural dimension that transcends geographical boundaries (Padilla de la Torre, 2012). Methodologically, a self-administered online survey with snowball sampling (n=530) was implemented between September and October 2023, and processed using SPSS. Findings reveal three key patterns: (1) marginality of local broadcasting(<10%in TV/radio/press), (2) predominance of digital platforms (Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp) for proximity information, and (3) generational heterogeneity amplified at the local scale (younger respondents: audiovisual networks; older adults: traditional media + Facebook/WhatsApp). The article concludes that the local functions as a revealer of non-uniform character of mediatization, as a laboratory for institutional disintermediation, and an amplifier of generational gaps in media competencies.
This article claims that the contemporary conditions of mediatization have reinforced the friend-enemy opposition, criteria of the political according to Carl Schmitt, for the constitution ofpolitical groups. Factors like the deepening of non-consensual dynamics, the link between different social actors, the diversification of communication exchanges, and the expansion of the "public" as well as the range of communication resources for building controversy enable the building of a confrontational digital public sphere. There, the schmittian political, as a deterritorialized concept, finds pertinence for the modulation of political aggregation, questioning the horizon of consent in contemporary democracies. The first section sets out the conditions of contemporary communicative circulation from the perspective of mediatization in order to discuss, in the following section, how the Habermasian public sphere is undermined and the organization of collective social experience that the digital public sphere entails. The third part is focused on Schmitt's concept of the political, emphasizing the friend-enemy opposition, its deterritorialized nature, and its confrontational attitude. In the last part, implications of this combined framework are elaborated: conflict and antagonism as central phenomena for contemporary social processes and the gathering of political communities.
This article aims to contribute to the debate and to the advancementofresearch on the subjectswhoparticipa-te in the contemporary media ecosystem, beyond their consideration as mere receivers. From a meso-level approach, and following a general review of audience studies, a new model for the periodization of mediatizations will be proposed. In a second stage, several quantitative studies focused on adolescence will be discussed and compared with earlier phases of this type of research. Third, the article will examine current contributions to mediatization studies from a sociosemiotic perspective within today's hypermediated ecosystem. Finally, technical and institutional research strategies will be proposed. While the epistemo-political standpoint adopted is that of the sociosemiotics of mediatizations, the trajectory of the article is centered on an interdisciplinary convergence currently underway, though not always explicitly articulated.
The article analyzes the articulations between time and space in the narratives and communicational practices of afro-referenced circuits in the face of racism within the context ofmediatization. The objective is to understand how these articulations expand the visibility and persistence of racial violence cases in the public sphere, especially the case of Gustavo Amaral, killed by a militarypolice officer in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2020. Methodologically, the research adopts a case study and the analysis of mediatized chronotopes, in dialogue with mediatization theories and black diaspora studies. The results indicate that afro-referenced circuits reconfigure temporal and spatial scales by presentifying diasporic cultural references in the public space expanded by the media, promoting counter-narratives that institutional silences.
This article aims to understand how public opinion manifests on sociodigital networks, using the femicide of Ingrid Escamilla as a case study. From a semiotic perspective grounded in Eliseo Ver & oacute;n's mediatization theory and Mario Carl & oacute;n's information circulation methodology, the phases of the topic's viralization on Twitter are examined. The results show how Ingrid Escamilla's name became a trending topic through a process of symbolic resignification, in which users spread peaceful images to counter the violent photographs of the crime; this phenomenon evidenced the interaction between digital and traditional media through intra-systemic and inter-systemic phases. Although the study focuses exclusively on Twitter in this particular case, it raises the need to expand the analysis to other platforms in order to obtain a broader perspective. Its value lies in revealing how public opinion has transformed into a new process of social manifestation within virtual environments, where users, cybernetic interactions, and media representations converge.
Antonio Fausto Neto is a leading figure in the field of communication studies in Latin America, having fulfilled a dual role over theyears. On the one hand, he has been a key institutional leader. In this capacity, he has headed CISECO (International Centre for Semiotics and Communication)1 since its foundation and played a pivotal role in the development of the postgraduate program at the University of Vale dos Sinos (Unisinos), Brazil. On the other hand, he has produced a vast body of work dedicated to studies on mediatization, politics and the circulation of meaning. A PhD graduate of the & Eacute;cole des Hautes & Eacute;tudes en Sciences Sociales, France (1974), he has maintained a close connection over the decades with Eliseo Ver & oacute;n, a founding figure of this type of studies in Latin America.
The textanalyzes howreligiosityadapts to confinement conditions through digital media, giving rise to new forms of virtual funeral rituals. Drawing on theoretical reflection, it connects concepts such as Eliade's (2012) hierophany, McLuhan's (1996) extension, and Scolari's (2015) interface to explore how social networks mediate the representations of death and mourning. The plasticity of the religious phenomenon is highlighted, showing that in the absence of in-person rituals, virtuality becomes a symbolic alternative to express collective suffering. Finally, the paper seeks tolaythe groundwork for future analyses of necrological narratives and the mediating role of technology in contemporary religious experience.
This article examines the samba circuit in Bixiga by analyzing the Instagram profiles of three venues dedicated to the genre in the neighborhood. Grounded in the concepts of (online) musical scenes, circuits, sonic-musical territoriality, and affordance, the study explores the interplay between these physical spaces and their digital representations on Instagram. It highlights the feedback loop between streets and networks in strengthening and renewing samba-related circuits. Employing an exploratory methodology that integrates digital and physical territories, the research focuses on Instagram's digital materialities, particularly its visual affordances. The three profiles were selected for their diverse digital practices, with an emphasis on material affordances.
The 2021 murder offive-year-old Lucio Dupuy, committed by his mother and her partner in the Argentine province of La Pampa (Argentina), became a media event that transcended the judicial sphere and crystallized the political, cultural, and media disputes of the contemporary conjuncture. In numerous discourses, across both social media and mass media, the case was framed as evidence of the alleged harmful effects of feminism and the expansion of sexual and reproductive rights. This interpretation quickly situated it within what is now known as the cultural battle (Laje & M & aacute;rquez, 2016; Herce, 2019; Caggiano, 2024), in a context characterized by the crisis of the traditional media system (Carl & oacute;n & Scolari, 2009; Carl & oacute;n, 2016), significant political polarization (Amen, 2021), and a counter-offensive against women's and sexual diversity movements (Gago, 2019). Within this scenario, this article, based on a qualitative empirical study, analyzes the enunciative strategies ofAgustin Laje, an intellectual figurehead of the new right-wing movements in Argentina and Ibero-America. The object of study is comprised of the discourses regarding the Lucio Dupuy case produced by this enunciator on YouTube during November and December 2021. Our working hypothesis maintains that, through the instrumentalization ofthe event, Laje constructed a narrative that linked feminism, sexual diversity, and extreme violence against children, consolidating an ideological framework convergentwith the program of the current administration of Argentine President Javier Milei. Consequently, the article aims to describe the productive mechanisms of this discursive intervention within the digital public space.
