This book results from the IV International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes held in 2020/2021. The III International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes had a program developed on two levels: debate panels with invited researchers (5 panels, with the participation of researchers from Sweden(2), Argentina (2), and Brazil (9, including five from PPGCC-Unisinos). The IV Seminar program and its structure are at https://www.midiaticom.org/seminario-midiatizacao/programacao-2020/. In this IV Seminar, the theme of the panels was “Mediatized Sapiens: the social construction of knowledge among interactions, means, circulation, and social mediation.” With mediatized sapiens, we want to refer to several media processes related to the mental changes of the species. Several questions can be enunciated related to these. How can we think of knowledge social construction when mediated by the media processes? To what extent does the mental experience of the species hold media processes as references to its building and inferences? How do the actors in a network participate in these processes? To what extent do institutions and organizations adapt to these new environments? In particular, how do the University, research, and scientific fields participate in this repair? Do the media in digital media, in action through expert systems and artificial intelligence, interpose themselves in these processes to the point of asking incisive and secondary questions? How do temporalities and spatiality affect the conditions of production and reception, including social practices, in the social production of knowledge? What epistemologies and methodologies can account for this new complexity amid indetermination and uncertainty zones?

This book is one of the results of the III International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes held in 2019. The III International Seminar on Research on Mediatization and Social Processes had a program developed on two levels: Debate Tables, with invited researchers (five discussion tables, with the participation of researchers from France (3), Argentina (2), Germany (1), and Brazil (5). The schedule of the III Seminar and its structure can be seen at https://www.midiaticom.org/seminario-midiatizacao/grade-de-programacao-2019/. In total, there were 15 hours of debates at the five Discussion Tables. Methodologically, the Seminar takes place in the articulation of Debate Tables with international guests and Working Groups with the presence of researchers, doctors, doctoral students, masters, and masters' degree students. We point out that, even in the scope of training processes, master's and doctoral students, masters and doctors, post-doctors and post-doctoral graduates, and members of the organizing Research Group take part as reviewers, in a blind evaluation process, of the expanded abstracts submitted by graduates with a lower title - under the coordination of the research professors from the Mediatization and Social Processes Group. They evaluated (in a group of more than three dozen reviewers) each of the works submitted by colleagues with a lower instructional level, with classificatory notes, which resulted in the approved works. They were then grouped by the Organizing Committee, successively, until they reached the event's working groups.

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.

Ethics in communication and media has arguably reached a pivotal stage of maturity in the last decade, moving from disparate lines of inquiry to a theory-driven, interdisciplinary field presenting normative frameworks and philosophical explications for communicative practices. The intent of this volume is to present this maturation, to reflect the vibrant state of ethics theorizing and to illuminate promising pathways for future research.

Over 25 years ago, Raymond Williams’ Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society set the standard for how we understand and use the language of culture and society. Now, three luminaries in the field of cultural studies have assembled a volume that builds on and updates Williams’ classic, reflecting the transformation in culture and society since its publication. New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society is a state-of-the-art reference for students, teachers and culture vultures everywhere. Assembles a stellar team of internationally renowned and interdisciplinary social thinkers and theorists Showcases 142 signed entries – from art, commodity, and fundamentalism to youth, utopia, the virtual, and the West – that capture the practices, institutions, and debates of contemporary society Builds on and updates Raymond Williams’s classic Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, by reflecting the transformation in culture and society over the last 25 years Includes a bibliographic resource to guide research and cross-referencing The book is supported by a website: www.blackwellpublishing.com/newkeywords.

After a long time of neglect, Artificial Intelligence is once again at the center of most of our political, economic, and socio-cultural debates. Recent advances in the field of Artifical Neural Networks have led to a renaissance of dystopian and utopian speculations on an AI-rendered future. Algorithmic technologies are deployed for identifying potential terrorists through vast surveillance networks, for producing sentencing guidelines and recidivism risk profiles in criminal justice systems, for demographic and psychographic targeting of bodies for advertising or propaganda, and more generally for automating the analysis of language, text, and images. Against this background, the aim of this book is to discuss the heterogenous conditions, implications, and effects of modern AI and Internet technologies in terms of their political dimension: What does it mean to critically investigate efforts of net politics in the age of machine learning algorithms?