Towards a Marxist Theory of Mediation

Contributions from Ibero-America to the Study of Digital Communication

Bibliographic Data

ID21187693
AuthorsJoan Pedro-Carañana (0000-0001-8958-0897, Saint Louis University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume18
Issue1
Pages236-253
Publication date2020-01-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuetripleC Communication Capitalism & Critique Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1726-670X • E-ISSN: 1726-670X
PublisherInformation Society Research (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1129
OpenAlexW2999050013
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

This paper presents and articulates for the first time the concept of mediation as theorised by three key scholars of the Ibero-American space, namely Manuel Martín-Serrano, Luis Martín-Santos, and Jesús Martín-Barbero. This article shows that their understandings of mediation are valuable for the study of digital communication, particularly for identifying criteria that facilitate the sublation of communicative capitalism into communicative socialism. The three scholars have placed the concept of mediation at the centre of their intellectual production with the aim of breaking with mechanical Marxism, but provide differing conceptualisations and have scarcely engaged in a dialogue of knowledges. This article will articulate the complementarity of Martín-Serrano’s Marxist socio-historical analysis of communication, Martín-Barbero’s Latin American cultural studies, and Martín-Santos’s phenomenological theorisation of mediation as the key concept of Marxist epistemology

Capitalism · Epistemology · Latin Americans · Marxist philosophy · Mediation · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Latin American Literature Studies · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Philosophy · Political Theory and Democracy

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Open DOIOpen Access