Between 2019 and 2023, media researchers from Södertörn University in UNISINOS and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) in Brazil, engaged in a collaborative effort to explore Scandinavian and South American perspectives on mediatisation, connecting universities from opposite sides of the world.

The project aimed to promote a nuanced understanding of mediatisation theory from different cultural perspectives and media studies traditions, dismantle epistemological barriers, and provide new insights into societies undergoing the process of mediatisation.

The chapters presented in this volume are grounded on the mobility of researchers across both countries where a productive knowledge exchange contributed to diversify epistemological, empirical, and methodological approaches to mediatisation theory, and provide new perspectives on mediatisation theory in contested media scenarios in Sweden, Brazil, and beyond.

Entre 2019 e 2023, pesquisadores da área de midiatização no campo das ciências da Comunicação da Universidade de Södertörn (Suécia), da Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brasil) e da Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Brasil) formaram a rede de pesquisa Capes-STINT de estudos em midiatização, para explorar as perspectivas escandinavas e sul-americanas sobre essa linhagem, conectando universidades de lados opostos do mundo. O projeto visava promover uma compreensão diversificada das teorias e metodologias para pensar a midiatização, a partir de diferentes perspectivas culturais e tradições de pensamento, a fim de desmantelar barreiras epistemológicas, além de ampliar o campo para a análise de sociedades em processo de midiatização em um contexto global norte-sul. Os capítulos apresentados neste volume foram construídos em diálogos realizados durante a mobilidade dos pesquisadores entre os dois países, onde o intercâmbio de conhecimentos ajudou a diversificar as perspectivas empíricas e epistemológicas neste campo de estudo, contribuindo com novas abordagens sobre a teoria da midiatização em cenários midiáticos e disputas de sentidos na Suécia, no Brasil e além.

The chapter explores the impact of digital infrastructures, specifically data "clouds" and communication networks, on contemporary society and the environment, highlighting the socio-environmental consequences of mediatization in the Anthropocene. The author reflects on how digital platforms, which initially promised to democratize information, have transformed into a "cloud empire" controlled by digital platforms. These platforms have not only expanded surveillance and political manipulation but also imposed an environmental burden due to the exponential growth of data centers and energy consumption, and their cultural and ecological impacts. By discussing the connection between natural elements and communication technologies, the chapter advocates for a neo-materialist perspective in mediatization studies that views these elements as active agents in shaping communication processes. It further proposes a “Terrestrial Internet” that prioritizes communicational care and sustainability, rejecting the cult of compulsive connectivity and excessive technological efficiency. To achieve this, the article points to how cultural actors respond to and create new socio-technical imaginaries that challenge the dominance of large corporations and promote social, environmental, and algorithmic justice, drawing inspiration from artistic practices that critically and creatively explore these issues.

The chapter explores deep memory and embodied artistic research methods elaborated in our collaborative artistic research project, Mãe Preta ("Black Mother") that investigates the visual and social history of Black motherhood in Brazil, from times of slavery to the present. Using visual archives and participatory and embodied artistic methods, the project is contextualized in historical and political realities regarding the architectonic and visual legacy of slavery in Brazil, in a time of burgeoning Afro-feminist social mobilizations in the 21st century. The essay details our methodological approach, emphasizing ethical considerations such as building trust with cultural institutions and local communities, considering the role of a deep memory of the slave past as ways of critically addressing visual archives through installation, performance, and visual narratives. We highlight challenges such as securing funding from cultural institutions and navigating political agendas as well as issues of care in dealing with traumatic histories in contested terrains. Overall, the essay problematizes deep memory and embodied artistic research in landscapes of historical trauma in a way that is ethical and socially engaged.

Taking stock of media activist initiatives in the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, this article discusses findings from case study research informing the media education platform “diraya.media.” Through participatory methodology, the case studies and the bilingual (Arabic/English) website aim to analyze and strengthen local media literacy pedagogies by learning with and from media activists in the region. This article reports on six case studies of SWANA-based media activist organizations and pedagogical material for the media literacy classroom. The goal is to reflect and discuss the methodological and theoretical ramifications of Diraya as a pedagogical space for reflection and knowledge exchange between media activists and other learners in the region and beyond. Drawing on the participating activists’ experiences, Diraya is embedded in the turn toward radical media education and civic media literacies, contributing to (1) de-Westernizing media literacy education, (2) creating more learning materials based on local activist knowledge as important resources to increase media literacy, and (3) enabling of long-term collaborations by archiving and making public experiences from SWANA-based media activists.

This article contributes to the growing field of critical studies about the visual politics of the green transition by highlighting the role of communication and the creative industries in promoting “green” ideologies. “The Swedish Mine” advocacy advertising campaign, launched in 2021, is presented as a case study to illustrate how lifestyle advertising genres are used to leverage the emotional engagement of progressive, mining-sceptical urban audiences to increase the social acceptance of intensified mining despite increasing climate awareness. Using visual culture studies, feminist, and critical race theory approaches to analyse the campaign materials, I explore how the campaign aestheticises “green” industrial progress by tokenising multiculturalism, fetishising consumption, and romancing national identity. As a counterpoint, I examine how social media reactions and activist responses illustrate tensions between mining acceptance and mining resistance in Swedish society. I conclude by positioning the campaign rhetoric in various forms of climate propaganda and highlighting the limits of the engineering of public consent for a “green” transition when such attempts use emotions as sites of “cognitive extraction” to cover technological and capitalist imperatives that ultimately promote Sweden as a leading mining nation.