OBSERVARE

Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 7, Nº. 2 (November 2016-April 2017), pp. 90-103

THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF COMMUNICATION WHEN THE WORLD BECOMES

GLOBALIZED

Olivia Velarde Hermida

ovelarde@ucm.es

Dr. in communication science from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Professor of

the UCM. Area of knowledge: Sociology. Her publications include "The communicative mediation

of personal and collective identities" Latina magazine of Social Communication, 70, pp 552 to

565. (2015) (With Martin Serrano, M.) and Paradigms of the Impacts of ICT on culture and

knowledge "in Latina Magazine of Social Communication, 70, pp. 347 to 379. (2015) (With

Bernete, F. and Franco, D.)

Francisco Bernete García

fbernete@ucm.es

Dr. in communication science from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Professor of

the UCM. Area of knowledge: Sociology. Coordinator of the universitymaster on Social

Communication. His publications include: Content Analysis" in Lucas, A. and Noboa, A (editors):

Knowing the social: building strategies and techniques and data analysis. Madrid: Fragua

Editorial, 2014 and "Designs for Social Science Study of Globalized Future Scenarios".

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol 4 No. 11 (1).; September 2014 ISSN

2220-8488 (Print) 2221-0989 (Online); pp 93-108 (with O. Velarde).

Abstract

This work is framed within the context of the researches and papers on the changes arising

from the convergence of globalization and the ICTs that enable globalization. It resumes the

theoretical approaches of Manuel Martín Serrano to study some of the transformations in the

mediating function of the public communication linked to the technology advancements

introduced in the Communication System. It tackles the technical developments that enable

the access to more information – in many cases immediately, which does not necessarily

imply that users have a better undersanding of what is happening in the world. The current

use of ICTs may lead to a reproduction of stereotypes within affinity groups – making each

group more closed rather than opening them to different groups with whom they may discuss

or share interpretations of the change in the environment.

Keywords

Globalization; Knowledge; Representations; Humanization; Use of ICTs

How to cite this article

Hermida, Olivia Velarde; García, Francisco Bernete (2016). "The social production of

communication when the world becomes globalized". JANUS.NET e-journal of International

Relations, Vol. 7, Nº. 2, November 2016-April 2017. Consulted [online] on the date of last

consultation, observare.autonoma.pt/janus.net/en_vol7_n2_art6

(http://hdl.handle.net/11144/2785)

Article received on February 11, 2016 and accepted for publication on September, 21

2016

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 7, Nº. 2 (November 2016-April 2017), pp. 90-103

The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF COMMUNICATION WHEN THE WORLD BECOMES

GLOBALIZED

Olivia Velarde Hermida

Francisco Bernete García

Introduction

In 1986, it was published The Social Production of Communication, in which Manuel

Martín Serrano develops the Social Theory of Communication, the foundations of which

are to remodel the communicative analysis from a socio-historic and macro-sociological

approach. These analyses are based on the existing links between the historical changes

of societies and the modalities of public communication that have appeared and

disappeared, from assembly communication to communication through computer-

communicative networks (Bernete, 2011).

The work abovementioned introduces the successive transformations of public

communication in the field of technologies, the organizations in charge of providing

communities with information, and its use in each community as a necessary component

to analyse the historical changes in societies. The scenario in which the list of adjustments

and imbalances between what happens to communities and the news about what has

happened is opened with the first social organizations, in which the social production of

communication is institutionalized when the agrarian and militaristic societies stabilize;

and has remained open for four thousand years until our times. Now, it is necessary to

understand the ongoing historical transformation related to the computer-communicative

revolution, which will eventually reshape the different forms of social action at a global

level, as well as the role of information and organizations (see Bernete, 2011).

In the third edition of The Social Production of Communication, published in 2004, the

author incorporates the results of the successive researches specifically designed to

verify the theory, following the dramatic changes in communication and information

mentioned above. In the text, it is provided an interpretation of the leap from the

audiovisual era to a computer-virtual era. The collective representations are related to

the current ways to obtain, distribute and use the information; and both, with their order

and disorder, find and confront groups and societies. This socio-historical mark – which

distinguishes the author of The Social Mediation demonstrates once again its theoretical

and clarifying power. Especially when it integrates the systematic study of the social and

communicative changes in predicting alternative scenarios that may arise from the

current computer-communicative abilities. Therefore, we deem it relevant to review

some of the key ideas used to plan the analysis of the existing relations between the

The translation of the article is the responsibility of their authors.

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

production and the reproduction of public communication and the production and

reproduction of social communication (see Bernete, 2011). We start this presentation by

referring to the construction processes of the social representations required for the social

reproduction.

As is known, social subjects create representations of the world on the basis of beliefs,

principles and values. Such beliefs are not only valid for the groups to give meaning to

their past and build a future, but also to understand their present. The collective

imaginations embrace the continuous and endless change of the social, material or ideal

environment to assume any novelty. In every society, incorporating in a cognitive

manner what erupts in reality or understanding what disappears is an institutional task

aimed at social control. The meaning of such intervention is contained in the following

quote:

“With the recourse to mediation, the community tries to achieve a

certain degree of consensus in the representations of the world

made by the different members of the group. Here is the reason

why all societies need subjects (such as the shaman) or institutions

(such as informative companies) specialized in the production and

reproduction of collective representations – a certain event

occurring and affecting all members of a group does not have one

single representation, nor the consequent agreement to severally

react to the event”. (Martín Serrano, 2004: 142).

The production and transmission of public information plays a mediating role when it

establishes a link between the transformations of the world and the knowledge of the

changes by the recipients of the information. This function involves the selection of

reference objects

and the provision of a number of data and assessments about such

objects; all this represents a representation of what is being communicated. By offering

the community representations of what already exists and occurs, the public

communication contributes – along with other mediating instances – to a proper

adequacy between the changes of the environment, behaviour patterns supported by

shared beliefs, and the institutions of the Social System. The public communication may

offer this congruence by either suggesting the reprocessing of collective representations,

or by providing an interpretation of the event to replenish the representations and

legitimize the existing order. In any case, the adjustment is aimed at stopping the social

action from exceeding the frameworks established.

The public communication influences the social action inasmuch as it allows members to

share a vision of what occurs; or, if preferred, as it exercises control over the social

representations shared by a collective. If it provides an acceptable interpretation for the

group, it favours a certain vision of reality and of what is more convenient to do in the

face of a created new situation. That is to say, it proposes a certain social action and

gives sense for the members of the collective.

The term reference objects refers to what two or more living beings communicate about – a provision, a

need, a hazard or a sports event may be considered reference objects if communicators exchange data

about them.

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

As is well known, the communicative mediations carried out in this historical moment

differ from the ones used just some decades ago. The following paragraphs set forth

some of the transformations occurring in public communication (its production,

distribution, reception and use) and the way such transformations affect the cognitive

representations of citizens in an era of transition between institutional communication

systems; nowadays, together with the “Mass Communication System” operate other

systems of information exchange through techno-computer networks.

This article deals with the ways to provide indications on what occurs – and its impact in

our perception of reality – which are characteristics of the current networks of exchange

of information. We will do so by recalling that some of the features of their ways to

produce and distribute information have not emerged with the new ICTs – they have

accelerated certain lines of the “communicative progress” that were born long before the

advent of the internet.

The goal of this analysis is to prove that some of the technological developments of

modernity – which may confer advantages to recipients (for instance, more information

about more things, higher reliability or more possibilities to react in less time), started

to give rise to contradictions with certain mediating functions, such as providing

interpretations of the events narrated. And such contradictions have grown more acute

over the last decades.

We refer below to what Professor Martín Serrano (2004) described as “great conquests

by the Capitalist Social Structure in the development of referential communication”

(synchrony, iconicity, extension of the referential universe) and the way in which their

development hinders the function to offer representations of the event that are

compatible with the principles and values shared.

1. The function to provide interpretation of the event when it is

synchronically transmitted

The time between the communicative product is produced and its reception by part of

the recipients was being reduced until the synchronic dissemination of the information

was achieved.

“The conquest of communicative synchrony has made it possible

that more people are potentially concerned by public events in a

useful period of time” (Martín Serrano, 2004: 112).

In fact, it represents a benefit for recipients since knowing beforehand about the event

may imply advance in their decision about the facts. If they receive the information at

the time the narrated facts are occurring, their reaction capacity would be as immediate

as the eyewitnesses’ of the event.

However, this technological development may hamper the mediating function of

providing an interpretation of the event, since the mediator, in this circumstance,

essentially works to give an immediate account of what is observed in the place and

present moment. (Many times, it is not about what is observed, but about the expressions

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 7, Nº. 2 (November 2016-April 2017), pp. 90-103

The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

of other mediators). Other tasks, such as selecting pertinent data, check them, or finding

different points of view for the building of a narration that makes it possible to relate the

facts if this present with previous ones, are subordinated to the goal of providing

information as soon as possible. Usually the narrator accompanies the listener or the

viewer in their access to the events, when they may be seen.

The story is believed to have a culturizing character, since it contributes to “introducing

new generations in the cultural patters of society and prepare them for their recreation”

(Echevarría, 2003), but the fact of transmitting the information of the event in real time

makes this function extremely difficult.

2. The function to provide interpretations of the event when pictures of

the reference objects are shown

Technical developments resulted in a constant increase in the number of images, in the

genesis of which participates the same object of the communication. From the recipient’s

point of view, knowing that the image directly comes from the object confers a degree

of reliability, regardless of the sender’s reliability. When means of iconic or synchronic

information are used, the possibilities to avoid mediators are greater for the benefit of

the autonomous interpretation of users. Recipients may configure a representation of the

event transmitted by themselves if they have the cognitive capacity to process the iconic

narration. However,

“the ability to express in images everything that has a shape

confronts the need that every interpretation must respond to a

particular rule or code, only shared by the members of a same

group” (Martín Serrano, 2004: 128).

The contradiction pointed out in the quote leads to the following thought – either verbal

indications are introduced (necessarily in a particular code) to channel the wide repertoire

of individual interpretations towards the interpretative framework of the mediator, or

they relinquish to the control over the interpretation of what was shown and it is allowed

that the meaning given to the information depends on the perceptive and cognitive

capacities of recipients.

The reception and recognition of images (fixed and in motion) require different

information processing habits from the ones required to process oral expressions, aligned

in a space or time sequence and more monosemic than images. If our culturization is

based on particular codes (languages learnt), the narrated descriptions and assessments

of the event in those same expressive models will be better understood than those

narrated with iconic codes. Working with these codes would mean a new way of learning

for a vast part of the population.

Only when recipients may unequivocally identify the object and the context in which the

images are taken, the iconic narration can be sufficient to recognize the status or the

activity of a reference object (for instance, a sports competition with which recipients are

familiar), with no written or oral presence of a mediator.

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

Additionally, even when it is recognized what the images show, showing does not mean

explaining the sense of what happens; many times it just means a way of constructing a

show with that event. The mere vision of things may produce a feeling of knowledge, but

the iconicity that supposedly makes facts transparent, usually produces the effect of

making them more opaque

3. The function of providing interpretations of the event when the

information is overabundant

One of the conquests inherited from current technological systems is that the information

about the events concerning to a specific community are made permanently available to

all member of such community. The features of ICTs have accelerated the dynamics to

expand the universe of reference objects – any emerging object may become a public

event and any assessment may be part of a point of view about what is occurring, the

manifestation of which is deemed legitimate (Martín Serrano, 2004: 127).

Theoretically, this expansion of what is referentially controlled may help to learn more

data about more objects, more different perspectives, expressed with more freedom. If

the increase of the information available was in accordance with what is more convenient

for users to know, they would be able to improve their understanding of the changes

occurring in their environment, and to know with stronger foundations what is possible

and impossible to do to adapt to changes, to push to make what they consider desirable

thrive, and to avoid what they consider undesirable.

As is known, the information overload of our times is incomparably greater that the one

announced by Alvín Toffler in his book Future shock (1970)

, but the effect is not

necessarily having more true information that could allow us to assess the facts and

participate in the public sphere with a great deal of information. The increase of

communicative interactions does not change one bit its character of “process that may

be used to tell the truth or to lie, to construct or destroy, to unite or separate, to educate

or diseducate” (Díaz Bordenave, 2012).

The amount of information accessible to user citizens to ICTs is not offered to meet their

needs for knowledge and is not the result of a so-called equality of opportunities to

publish on the internet their personal narrations and participate in the public sphere.

Indeed, the technical features make it possible that every user of networks may offer

reference data and assessments about any matter of interest. But not all users have the

same economic and technical capacities. Therefore, they do not have the same

possibilities to appear in networks or to influence in the social representations of the

collective with their personal view of things. Social, economic, political, etc. inequalities

are also taken into consideration in the order of the communicative production.

The applications allowing current ICTs have accelerated the elimination of two dividing

lines: a) the one distinguishing between agents and communicants, and b) the one

distinguishing between senders and recipients within the Communication System.

Please refer to La sociedad de la transparencia [The Society of Transparency] (Han, 2013) to find out more

on the sense of “more exposure” in contemporary societies.

Toffler perceived “too many changes in a too short period of time”.

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

a) Among the actors of the Social System, the functional separation between social

agents (those who produce, sell or buy things) and communicants (those that

exchange information about things) still exists, although the information and the

knowledge (resources for social reproduction) have become resources of the

productive system and have strengthened ties between production and

communication. Public and private interactions are organized from the information

and the knowledge.

One of the consequences that all agents (political, economic, etc.) are communicants

is reflected in the informative overflow of the internet. Large corporations have the

ability to plan it in a way that the information provided in the technological networks

(all of them equally legitimate) hampers the access to knowledge.

This new form of opacity has been observed as “information intoxication”, which

hides truth under the excess of narrations. This is another way to censor – instead

of (in addition to) silencing or prohibiting, words, images, sounds and number are

provided. This is how the so-called “knowledge-based society” also becomes the

“uncertainty-based society”, since –paradoxically– it hinders knowledge by providing

a flood of information.

b) The separation between senders and recipients in mass communication was

functional; on the one hand, the subjects authorized to perform the role of informant

–to produce and distribute the communicative products to the mass – and, on the

other hand, the potential recipients of such products (for instance, according to their

age, working spaces or times and leisure). This distinction has been blurred. Although

the institutional communication has not been diminished, many other informative

exchanges are produced alongside – comments about news or opinion columns, or

sometimes just isolated words, photographs, emoticons or directions that refer to

another informative space. The subjects that publicly interpret the event have

multiplied and, consequently, the views of the world.

4. The function to provide interpretations of the event with fragmented

narrations

The increase of information abovementioned is linked to certain innovations in the format

and in the use of communicative practices. In the past decades, there have been changes

in the way we see (for instance, zapping or narrative grammar that mix genders), the

way we write (for instance, hypertexts) or the way we read (for instance, instant

messaging or microblogging short stories).

In the new narrative formats communication modalities proliferate (or simply, connection

modalities). They tend to reduce narration as much as possible. There are more

exchanges of images and short-length texts. After micro-stories and blogs, “social

networks” emerged, where anything is said or shown with no connection to other things.

Later, microblogging services, such as Twitter, through which users exchange texts that

are obligatorily short, frequently used to announce the existence of more informative

load in other internet space.

Although there are still large narrations, (for instance, some very successful TV series),

micro-stories have multiplied, with almost no narrative structure at all (except from

advertisements). Given their nature, they are not ordered narrations that offer a certain

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

representation of a reference object, but pieces of narratives, flows of images, sounds

and words that leave the mental construction of references to each user.

Inasmuch as current ICTs are applied to the educational system, especially in online

courses, it is evidenced a break in the sequentiality that has characterised the structure

and the use of textbooks. Instead, fragments from different texts are introduced with

links to others. This composition seems to avoid a closing of the narration. Regarding

their use, the discontinuity of reading, exercises, etc. is facilitated in different times and

places. As we say, the effect is to leave knowledge structuring in the hands of students

– by using their many and portable technical devices they must decide where and when

to do each thing.

5. The absence of collective representation provided by mediators and

the difficulty to build up consensus on the basis of shared knowledge

Between producing and disseminating narrations, and doing so with fragments, headings,

tweets or simple emoticons, there is something else than a difference of length – the first

ones are elaborated by knowledge mediators (for instance, writers, teachers or

journalists) that choose the references, data and the order to build a product for their

community. The second ones are usually disseminated with no order, so the members of

the receiving community must assess their informative value and create some

representation. It seems clear that in this way the existence of shared representations is

difficult.

Here is the following paradox – on the one hand, globalization is supposed to lie on the

use of shared information and knowledge at a global level; on the other hand, there are

more and more ICT applications aimed at offering informative fragments instead of

providing structured representations that contribute to diminish the level of lack of

knowledge of what happens in the world.

Uncertainty grows while the information dumped in the net by the marked increase of

communicative mediations that, instead of improving our knowledge of the world, our

own and others’ life, feeds prejudices and misunderstanding, they create confusion and

promote endless conflicts.

Nevertheless, it may not be inferred from the points above that the social reproduction

is at risk due to a decline of consensus. In fact, consensus is promoted, but not from all

citizens and, surely, not at a global scale. “Theoretically, globalization and the ICTs that

make it possible provide a possibility to know more about the culture of other countries

and regions of the world; which theoretically may also extend the possibilities to reach

better understanding between people from different parts of the planet” (Bernete, 2010).

The consensus based on the control of networks may reach unprecedented levels.

Because the consensus based on obedience to the own group is being promoted,

strengthening some identities before others, the consensus of the local or nationalist

glorification; the consensus based on the reproduction of stereotypes of any nature that

networks quickly and easily amplify – national and local stereotypes, gender or sexual

orientation, Jews, Muslims or Christians, just like hundreds of years ago.

The same technologies that allow the dismantling of knowledge, also allow a use aimed

at prioritizing certain stereotyped representations of reality and their reproduction with

JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations

e-ISSN: 1647-7251

Vol. 7, Nº. 2 (November 2016-April 2017), pp. 90-103

The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

redundant “information”. The dominant views of the world in quantitative terms

eventually become dominant in qualitative terms. Just like in previous times, but now

with more reasons – a minority of subjects are able to distinguish true information from

false.

Distinguishing true information from false information has had the greatest importance

in the prevention and solution of social conflicts. In the same way that confusing what is

false with what is true may lead and exacerbate confrontation.

In social communication truth has been used to deactivate conflicts, while lies have

created and intensified them. And this is how it happens nowadays. For instance, lies

legitimate aggressions to other countries, when mass media exacerbate warmongering

or when a military invasion is planned.

According to Prof. Martín Serrano (2007: 252-262), a piece of information is truthful if

the data provided about the reference object are

● objective (they correspond to the object’s characteristics)

● significant (necessary to inform about this object from a specific point of view) and

● All data are valid or complete to provide users of the communication with a certain

view of the object.

The overload of information citizens have nowadays forces them not only to have

technical capacities to make the most of the IT applications, but also, and especially,

cognitive capacities that they will hardly get by themselves. Please consider if each

computer, Smartphone, internet, etc. user, just for the simple fact of having an access

device and being connected can search, compare, assess, and relate information to

produce his/her own knowledge. Or if he/she may distinguish objective and significant

data from those that only seem so; or if they have criteria to assess the validity of the

data offered in each case, analyse their structure and take into account other data or

alternative structures. All in all, to distinguish between truth and a lie.

Learning to relate, assess, etc. to convert the information into knowledge depends on

the fact the models, the organization and the resources of the educational system are

oriented in such direction and that everybody have the chance to benefit from such

learning.

Until users do not acquire such capacities, it is possible that most of them will have to

understand that they are “a mass living in their lack of knowledge, fascinated by

technology and more and more alienated” (Brey, 2009: 38). If this is the scenario,

probably individuals will not be the ones benefiting the most from ICTs, but large

corporations able to correlate huge amounts of data, according to this author.

“The centre of gravity of the commercialized knowledge-based

society gradually moves from the individual to the collective

structures (…). Increasingly, there is more knowledge in

In the past decades, political and academic authorities promote with their guidelines that students have

competences in the management of information and the acquisition of an applicable knowledge with a

change value. This does not necessarily mean they are trained to manage assessment criteria on the

veracity of the information.

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The social production of communication when the world becomes globalized

Olivia Velarde Hermida; Francisco Bernete García

organizations, but less knowledge in individuals, more information

in the silicon memories and less in human brains. Individuals

progressively leave their central position, which becomes diluted,

and from the periphery they are weaker and more expendable than

ever”. (Brey, 2009: 40-41).

In general terms, the duality predicted by Castells (1995 b:11) seems to be consolidated

unless technical innovations are used in a different way:

“(information society) is the society of the technological and medical

feats as well as the society of the marginalization of a large sector

of the population, irrelevant for the new system”.

6. The social use of technical innovations defines the sense of mediations

If the technical capacities of the informative instruments are known as well as the options

of their potential uses, it is understood that, up until now, advanced capitalist societies

have defended themselves from the undesired transforming effects of the technological

innovations by restricting their social uses.

The Capitalist Social Formation has used Mass Media with the goal of providing

information and training based on domain ethics. Technology has changed, but the

management of current ICTs favours the same ethics and the domain has been

strengthened, since the capitalist production method has not changed.

Manuel Martín Serrano describes the “communication production method” as the way

each Social Formation takes control over the public information.

“The information owned is different in each Social Formation, not

only for its utility, but also for its ownership:

- The use of the information may refer to different use criteria. But

the information required for the reproduction of the Social

System will be owned when it contributes to the creation, or at

least the recreation of the conditions (material, institutional,

cultural) that are crucial for the functioning of the Social

Formation.

- The ownership of the information may be assigned to specific

users, namely institutions, groups or individuals; or remain

seemingly inexistent. But the information useful for the

maintenance of the social structure, or the information that may

eventually be used to transform the organization (hierarchical,

stratum, classes) will be owned by dominant groups. This

ownership is not judicially recognized, and not even at a

functional level in all cases. However, it is always identifiable at

a structural level by defining who are the ones to decide what is

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100

the value of use of the public information”. (Martín Serrano,

2004: 101-102).

The innovations in the infrastructures of the Communication System have been

incorporated to keep a production and reproduction model, but not for other uses that

render less benefits or that would weaken the political or economic domain.

The maintenance of the productive and reproductive models allow current ICTs to offer

the possibility to participate in an endless number of recreational, educational, relational

or political activities, among others. This does not mean that the political participation,

education, social relations, services or benefits to citizens are promoted, since they are

only allowed in the new techno-informative space. While certain activities are allowed in

the so-called “cyberspace”, there is more instability and insecurity in the material

dimension of daily life – employment, income, housing, health, etc.

We find ourselves facing a technological revolution of enormous significance since it will

probably result in irreversible changes for the human condition. And in the time in which

a historical process of such a magnitude is started, there is a renewal of hope for

humanity to have the control of their future using the technical inventions to improve the

nature of people, their life conditions and the organization of societies. Therefore, the

determination to put technical innovations at the service of humanizing objectives has

been reborn and makes new sense with the existence of ICTs. These are the initiatives

that try to use these technologies to gradually introduce methods of communication social

production that are not conditioned by the logics of control and of the economic benefit

(see Martín Serrano, 2014a).

Mediators are required to walk towards a more human future, based on precise

information and shared knowledge. Instead of being driven by the principle of

competitiveness among groups or States, mediators are supposed to be moved by

solidarity and brotherhood in a single universal community. The ethnocentrism marking

our relations has caused so many divisions – gender, generations, religions, nations, etc.

– that this horizon is seen as utopian.

Conclusion

The professionals of public communication are not the only interpreters of the event.

They also interpret what there is and what happens to other socializing agents such as

friends, relatives or teachers. These agents and the professional informants themselves

are obliged to be familiar with the transformations in the communication methods.

The processes of social communication are transformed when the world globalizes. And

it had to be this way, because the largest material interactivity (transport, commercial

exchanges, etc.) is necessarily linked to greater information flows, favoured by current

ICTs. A dimension of such transformations is related to the nature of the mediations that

the communication introduces to orient social action. The communicative actions

performed in this historical moment differ from the ones used just a couple of decades

ago.

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This work is focused on the communicative mediations, which aim to establish a link

between what changes in the environment and the knowledge of the changes by the

recipients of the information.

The previous paragraphs state that the function to provide the community with

representation of what occurs in the environment is changing –in some cases, minimizing

– because the technological developments, together with institutional communication,

fosters the prosperity of other communication practices, where the narrative made with

complete and ordered information (following whatever criteria) is not valid.

We also referred to the difficulties to provide recipients with an interpretation of the event

when it is synchronically transmitted, when iconic codes prevail over oral, when the

information is excessive, and when predominant formats are extremely reduced in

extension and scarcely narrative (headlines, tweets, emoticons, etc.).

If public communication does not provide collective representations, the construction of

consensus on the basis of shared knowledge is more difficult, as it entrusts the recipient

community with the task to assess the information and make it fit in their view of the

world. This does not put social cohesion at risk because there are other mediators, in

addition to the ones that work in the communication system, and because consensus

may lie on the basis of stereotyped representations that are easily disseminated and

reproduced, and that feed the prejudices of each collective before the rest. Group

cohesion is strengthened as well as consensus about its own culture within collectives,

when, in theory, there are more chances to discuss and to know about who is different

(given the technical resources and scale economy).

The result of this use of the information and the knowledge is and increase of ignorance

about what exists and what does not exist, and an increase of uncertainty about what

may occur and what can be done. Ignorance and confusion emerge when the wealth of

information dumped in the public space is so great that it becomes a torrent from which

we have to defend. In these circumstances, mediation is open to mystification and

dehumanization, which in fact is exercised by institutions created to this end to control

the representations shared about what occurs:

“Experts in mystification disguise the geopolitical interests of

dominant nations with noble principles. These manipulators are key

pieces in the planning of design wars around the planet (…). During

war actions, experts in dehumanization will turn barbarity of

bombing into spectacles. They are professionals serving the current

warlords that will schedule disinformation to ensure the suffering

and outrages are not visible for media chroniclers or audiences

(Martín Serrano, 2006).

In this context, today more than ever, citizens need mediators to help them to interpret

the facts:

“In the emerging globalized world, professionals, teacher, and

communication researchers, take increasing social responsibilities.

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Few fields can prove certain – as much as communication does –

that expert knowledge does not legitimate control and makes it

more efficient, but to unveil it” (Martín Serrano, 2006).

The representations that will bring the real globalization of humanity, with no reduction

of their identities or cultures, will be the ones to link technology revolutions to the

liberation of peoples, those protracting the progress in humanization. Views of the future

that direct the applications of the new technologies to share their knowledge and

information, to globalize the solidarity that humanizes. This was the use programme of

the knowledge and information technologies designed by the enlightened.

They applied the sociologic perspective to find out if it would be possible to reach another

time when history would have reached its zenith, removing power from the symbols and

lowering the symbolic value of power. That time when there is a single human

community, enriched by any possible diversity, with all its cohesion, because, finally,

solidarity ties would have tied the whole species (see Martín Serrano, 2014b).

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