LIS: Letra. Imagen. Sonido. Ciudad Mediatizada
(FAIMA Business & Management Journal)

This article proposes a novel methodological framework termed "acoustic archaeology" to investigate the sonic remnants and reverberations of post-industrial decline in northern European cities. As urban centers transition from manufacturing hubs to service-oriented and highly mediatized smart cities, the historical soundscapes of industrial labor are systematically erased from public memory. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, environmental sound recordings, and spatial acoustic modeling in abandoned textile mills in Manchester and dilapidated steelworks in Eastern Europe, we document how architectural ruins operate as passive sonic archives. We argue that these deteriorating structures possess specific acoustic signatures—reverb, echo, and resonant frequencies—that textually recall the rhythmic violence and mechanical din of the Fordist era. The research interrogates the contemporary gentrification practices that seek to "sanitize" these acoustic environments, transforming historically noisy sites of labor into hushed, premium residential lofts. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of soundscape ecology and critical heritage studies, this paper suggests that the eradication of industrial acoustics constitutes a form of mnemonic violence, severing the contemporary urbanite from the sensory history of the working class. Furthermore, we analyze recent interventions by sound artists who temporarily re-amplify these ruins, arguing that such performative acts of sonic resurrection serve as vital political counter-narratives. Ultimately, this study asserts that listening to the architectural ruin is not an act of mere nostalgia, but a rigorous critical practice necessary for understanding the sensory displacements inherent in late capitalism, urging urban planners to recognize acoustic heritage as a fundamental component of the mediatized city.

The rapid proliferation of machine vision and automated facial recognition technologies fundamentally disrupts traditional paradigms of visual semiotics, shifting the interpretive act from human cognition to computational calculation. This paper critically examines the "algorithmic gaze," exploring how artificial neural networks perceive, deconstruct, and assign meaning to human faces at the sub-pixel level. Moving beyond the discourse of visual representation, we investigate the operational logic of these systems, mapping how human identity is mathematically translated into biometric data points, matrices, and probabilistic classifications. Our analysis focuses on the structural and often invisible biases encoded within the proprietary datasets used to train these algorithms. Through a rigorous examination of recent failures in municipal facial recognition deployments in global metropolitan centers, we demonstrate how this non-human gaze systematically misidentifies and misclassifies individuals of darker complexions and non-normative gender presentations. Relying on critical race theory and post-humanist media studies, the paper argues that machine vision does not merely reflect existing societal prejudices; it automates and geometrically scales them, effectively institutionalizing a new, highly efficient regime of digital physiognomy. Furthermore, we analyze contemporary artistic resistance strategies, specifically exploring "computer vision dazzle" camouflage and adversarial fashion designed to confuse the algorithmic gaze. Ultimately, this research concludes that understanding visual culture in the 21st century requires a radical epistemological shift; scholars must interrogate not just what images mean to human subjects, but how images are mathematically digested, cross-referenced, and weaponized by the ubiquitous, unseen architecture of algorithmic surveillance.

In an era defined by ubiquitous digital performance and the fluid curation of online identity, the literary genre of autofiction has experienced a significant global resurgence, serving as a vital diagnostic tool for the contemporary crisis of authenticity. This article explores how digital connectivity and platform logic have structurally altered the production and consumption of autobiographical narratives. By closely reading a selection of seminal autofictional texts published between 2012 and 2018, the research examines the deliberate blurring of the authorial persona, the narrator, and the digital avatar. The study proposes the concept of "post-truth poetics," an aesthetic strategy wherein authors intentionally weaponize factual ambiguity, hyper-confession, and intermedial references (such as embedding emails, tweets, and forum posts directly into the text) to destabilize the reader's trust. Drawing upon the media theories of Jean Baudrillard and contemporary narratology, we argue that this specific iteration of autofiction mimics the phenomenological experience of scrolling through a social media feed, where profound tragedy, banal observation, and manufactured outrage are seamlessly flattened onto a single textual plane. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the unique participatory dynamic this creates, as readers often engage in digital sleuthing to verify the author's claims, expanding the boundaries of the text into the real-world digital footprint of the writer. Ultimately, this research asserts that contemporary autofiction acts as a critical literary immune response to the deceptive architectures of the mediatized age. By pushing the limits of narrative reliability to the point of structural collapse, these texts force a necessary, collective reevaluation of how truth, memory, and subjective experience are constructed, commodified, and defended in the twenty-first century.

Internet memes, historically dismissed as ephemeral and frivolous artifacts of digital subcultures, have coalesced into highly potent vehicles for transnational political communication, cultural critique, and economic extraction. This paper introduces a comprehensive framework for understanding "memetic capital," examining how repetitive, easily manipulable image macros accrue ideological weight and exchange value across disparate digital platforms. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that combines large-scale quantitative web scraping with critical discourse analysis, the research tracks the global migration and mutation of specific politically charged meme templates during major electoral cycles in the Americas and Southeast Asia. We argue that memes function as a complex, decentralized visual vernacular; they rely on profound intertextuality and inside knowledge, allowing marginalized digital communities to bypass traditional journalistic gatekeeping and articulate complex geopolitical frustrations through irony and absurdism. However, the study also critically interrogates the corporate appropriation of memetic labor. Relying on Marxist theories of digital capitalism, the paper demonstrates how multinational brands and political action committees systematically harvest authentic memetic formats generated by online communities, stripping them of their radical origins to optimize commercial engagement and algorithmic visibility. This rapid cycle of grassroots creation, viral dissemination, and corporate co-optation highlights the deep structural inequalities of the attention economy. In conclusion, this research asserts that memes are not merely digital jokes, but highly contested semiotic battlegrounds. The ability to successfully author, iterate, and inject a meme into the mainstream consciousness is increasingly a fundamental requirement for exercising political and cultural power in the contemporary mediatized public sphere.

The rapid emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) as a mainstream medium has frequently reproduced colonial narratives of exploration, spatial conquest, and the 'terra nullius' myth within digital environments. In stark contrast to these hegemonic design practices, this article investigates how Indigenous digital artists and storytellers from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and North America are actively reclaiming and decolonizing immersive media. Through a detailed critical analysis of four prominent Indigenous-led VR installations exhibited globally between 2016 and 2018, the research examines the unique aesthetic and architectural strategies utilized to translate traditional ontological frameworks into 3D digital space. We argue that these creators utilize VR not merely as an entertainment platform, but as a crucial tool for "virtual sovereignty"—the assertion of digital land rights, linguistic revitalization, and the secure archiving of sacred epistemologies away from the extractive gaze of Western institutions. The study highlights how these immersive worlds deliberately subvert conventional linear storytelling and gamified mechanics, opting instead for cyclical temporalities, deep ecological interactivity, and protocols of respectful engagement that require the user to abandon their presumed dominance over the virtual landscape. Drawing upon Indigenous media theory and post-colonial spatial studies, the paper emphasizes the radical potential of worldbuilding in VR. By meticulously reconstructing lost historical landscapes, visualizing ancient cosmologies, and centering Indigenous languages in the auditory mix, these digital interventions serve as powerful pedagogical tools for cultural resurgence. Ultimately, this research concludes that the future of immersive media must be critically evaluated through the lens of digital decoloniality, ensuring that emerging virtual territories do not simply replicate the geographical violences of the past.

In stark opposition to the sensory overload, kinetic editing, and relentless auditory stimulation characteristic of contemporary global blockbusters, the international cinematic movement known as "Slow Cinema" employs duration and silence as its primary aesthetic modalities. This article provides a rigorous interdisciplinary analysis of the semiotics of silence within long-take cinematic narratives, specifically focusing on the works of acclaimed directors from Latin America and East Asia. Moving beyond the conceptualization of silence as a mere absence of dialogue or score, the research investigates the "affective void"—the palpable, heavy acoustic space that forces the viewer into a state of heightened, uncomfortable somatic awareness. Through detailed micro-analyses of selected prolonged sequences, the study maps how the deliberate attenuation of sound magnifies the micro-acoustics of the environment: the rustle of clothing, ambient weather patterns, and the subtle breathing of the actors. Relying on the phenomenological film theory of Vivian Sobchack and the acoustic theories of Michel Chion, we argue that this extreme auditory minimalization serves a profound political and philosophical function. It actively demands an arduous, participatory viewing practice that resists the passive consumption mandated by hyper-commercialized media. The silence in these films is structural; it hollows out the narrative to allow for the contemplation of trauma, historical stasis, and existential alienation. Ultimately, this research asserts that in a mediatized world entirely saturated by noise and digital distraction, the radical cinematic deployment of silence and the unedited pause constitutes one of the most potent, subversive acts of contemporary visual culture, reclaiming time and auditory space for critical introspection.

The contemporary resurgence of the body horror genre in global literature and serialized television serves as a visceral, somatic reflection of the profound anxieties surrounding ubiquitous digital connectivity, cybernetic augmentation, and the erosion of bodily sovereignty. This article utilizes a psychoanalytic and media studies framework to analyze how twenty-first-century horror narratives conceptualize the internet not merely as a communication tool, but as a parasitic, biological pathogen that actively infects and mutates human flesh. By examining key literary texts and media artifacts produced in the past decade, the research explores recurring tropes: the physical integration of smartphones into anatomy, the viral transmission of digital curses through screens, and the dissolution of the individual ego into a horrific, hive-mind network. We argue that these disturbing visual and textual representations tap into deeply rooted cultural fears regarding the loss of privacy, the invisible extraction of biometric data by technology conglomerates, and the increasing reliance on algorithmic prosthetics for basic cognitive functions. Drawing upon the post-humanist theories of Donna Haraway and the abject theory of Julia Kristeva, the paper demonstrates how the "networked flesh" acts as the ultimate site of abjection, collapsing the fundamental boundaries between the organic self and the synthetic machine, the private interior and the public broadcast. In conclusion, this study asserts that modern body horror provides a crucial, speculative language for articulating the trauma of the digital age. By literalizing the invasive nature of modern technology, these narratives force a necessary confrontation with the biological costs of our unprecedented entanglement with the mediatized world.

The integration of predictive analytics, big data, and machine learning algorithms into municipal law enforcement fundamentally reconfigures the spatial politics and lived experience of the contemporary city. This article investigates the phenomenon of predictive policing software, interrogating how historical crime data is mathematically weaponized to produce mediatized maps of anticipated risk. Through a comprehensive critical analysis of proprietary algorithmic platforms deployed in North American and European municipalities, the research uncovers the deep epistemological flaws inherent in these predictive models. We argue that these systems do not accurately forecast future criminal activity; rather, they mathematically launder deeply entrenched historical biases, creating self-fulfilling feedback loops that disproportionately target, surveil, and harass marginalized urban communities. Relying on the theoretical frameworks of surveillance capitalism and critical geography, the study explores how the city is transformed into a continuously monitored, quantifiable grid, where physical movement and socio-economic status are constantly evaluated for deviance. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the public relations rhetoric utilized by technology vendors and police departments, noting how the language of "objective data" and "smart city efficiency" is strategically deployed to deflect civil rights concerns and bypass democratic oversight. Ultimately, this research posits that predictive policing represents a dangerous mutation of urban governance. By relying on the architecture of anticipation, the mediatized city effectively criminalizes geography and poverty, establishing a preemptive carceral geography that demands urgent interdisciplinary intervention from media scholars, ethicists, and legal advocates to protect the fundamental right to the city.

The migration of digital literature from desktop computers to mobile, touchscreen devices necessitates a radical re-evaluation of reading as a deeply embodied, physical practice. This paper investigates the "haptic turn" in contemporary electronic literature, analyzing how authors and developers design native applications that require complex gestural inputs—swiping, pinching, tapping, and tilting—to advance the narrative. By examining a curated selection of award-winning literary apps released for iOS and Android platforms, the research explores how the physical manipulation of the hardware becomes inextricably linked to the hermeneutic interpretation of the text. We argue that the touchscreen eliminates the mediating distance of the mouse and keyboard, establishing an unprecedented intimacy and complicity between the reader's flesh and the algorithmic code. Drawing upon phenomenology and media ecology, the study maps the sensory choreography of mobile reading, demonstrating how the friction of the glass, the accelerometer's response to gravity, and sudden haptic vibrations are utilized as primary narrative devices, often inducing feelings of anxiety, urgency, or disorientation. Furthermore, the paper addresses the ephemeral nature of these works, noting how the relentless cycle of operating system updates threatens mobile literature with rapid, unavoidable obsolescence. Conclusively, this research establishes that haptic literature successfully bridges the gap between literary studies and interface design, proving that the digital text is not merely a visual artifact, but a tactile event that demands a somatic, full-body engagement from the contemporary reader.

As visual advertising spaces become increasingly saturated and easily bypassed through ad-blocking technologies, multinational corporations are aggressively colonizing the auditory domain to capture consumer attention and loyalty. This article provides a comprehensive critical analysis of "acoustic capitalism," examining the highly engineered discipline of sonic branding. Through a detailed investigation of corporate audio logos, proprietary UI soundscapes in digital applications, and the curated background music of retail environments, the research dissects how brands systematically manipulate aural frequencies to elicit specific affective responses. We argue that sound, due to its non-directional nature and ability to bypass conscious visual processing, serves as the ultimate vector for subliminal brand indoctrination. Utilizing psychoacoustics and the critical theory of the culture industry, the study demonstrates how the frictionless, synthetically perfect tones of startup apps and luxury vehicles are designed to pacify consumer anxiety and construct an illusion of seamless technological competency. Furthermore, the paper investigates the geopolitical implications of sonic branding, noting how Western corporate sounds often function as a form of aural imperialism, homogenizing local soundscapes and erasing regional acoustic diversity in globalized commercial centers. The research also highlights the emerging field of voice-activated assistants, warning against the intimate data extraction facilitated by always-listening corporate devices situated in the domestic sphere. Ultimately, this study concludes that acoustic capitalism represents a profound intrusion into the sensory autonomy of the individual, necessitating a robust framework for acoustic ecology and a critical public defense of the right to a quiet, un-branded auditory environment.

The dominant metaphorical language of the digital age—characterized by terms like "the cloud," "wireless connectivity," and "virtual space"—deliberately obscures the immense, toxic material infrastructure required to sustain contemporary media consumption. This paper disrupts the myth of digital immateriality by rigorously examining the geopolitical lifecycle of electronic waste (e-waste), focusing on the informal recycling hubs located in West Africa and Southeast Asia. Through a blend of environmental journalism, political ecology, and media archaeology, the research maps the transnational logistics that transport discarded smartphones, servers, and monitors from the affluent Global North to economically vulnerable regions. We argue that the planned obsolescence driving consumer technology directly results in catastrophic environmental degradation and severe public health crises, as marginalized workers extract precious metals using hazardous chemical and thermal processes. Drawing upon the theories of "slow violence" and environmental racism, the study highlights how the ecological cost of digital capitalism is systematically outsourced and rendered invisible to the primary consumer base. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the visual culture surrounding e-waste, critiquing the tendency of Western photojournalism to aestheticize these toxic landscapes while stripping the local workers of their political agency and technological ingenuity. By firmly grounding media studies in the harsh reality of heavy metals, rare earth extraction, and atmospheric pollution, this research concludes that a truly ethical understanding of global communication systems demands a radical accountability for the hardware's entire lifecycle, from violent extraction to its deeply unequal, toxic disposal.

The explosive, global adoption of short-form video platforms, most notably TikTok, has generated entirely new paradigms for the creation, replication, and rapid dissemination of vernacular youth culture. This article provides a comprehensive sociological and performance-based analysis of the platform, conceptualizing the endless stream of synchronized dances, lip-syncs, and comedic challenges as a highly accelerated form of "algorithmic folklore." Utilizing digital ethnography and choreographic analysis across diverse geographic regions, the research examines how the platform's unique affordances—specifically its robust audio library, duet features, and highly opaque, hyper-personalized recommendation algorithm (the "For You" page)—actively encourage collaborative mimicry and creative mutation. We argue that these micro-performances function as essential social currency for Generation Z, allowing for the articulation of collective identity, political frustration, and intersectional solidarity within a heavily gamified environment. However, the study also critically interrogates the exploitative dynamics of the platform's attention economy. Drawing upon critical race theory, the paper meticulously documents the systemic erasure and appropriation of Black creators' choreographic labor by white, affluent influencers, highlighting the algorithm's documented bias toward eurocentric beauty standards and wealthy domestic backgrounds. Furthermore, we analyze the geopolitical anxieties surrounding the platform's corporate ownership, data harvesting practices, and potential for state-sponsored censorship. Ultimately, this research posits that TikTok is not merely a trivial repository of teenage entertainment, but a powerful, highly contested global theater. It operates as the primary engine for contemporary memetic culture, fundamentally reshaping how the mediatized body performs, connects, and is surveilled in the algorithmic age.

The conversational, unscripted podcast format—frequently colloquially referred to as "two dudes talking" or the "chatcast"—has become a dominant fixture in contemporary digital media consumption, operating as a profound antidote to the isolating conditions of modern urban life. This paper explores the psychological and auditory mechanics of the "parasocial ear," investigating how audio producers construct a deeply immersive illusion of friendship, companionship, and exclusive access for the solitary listener. Through qualitative interviews with dedicated podcast audiences and rigorous acoustic analysis of top-charting independent shows, the research identifies the specific rhetorical and sonic strategies employed to cultivate this intimacy. We analyze the deliberate inclusion of conversational errors, inside jokes, direct address, and high-fidelity vocal proximity (often achieved through specific microphone techniques) as essential tools for simulating the biological presence of a peer. Drawing upon media psychology and affect theory, the study argues that this intense parasocial bonding is highly lucrative; it significantly lowers the listener's critical defenses, making the conversational host-read advertisement exponentially more effective than traditional radio spots. Furthermore, the paper critically examines the darker implications of this intimacy, documenting cases where podcast audiences have developed unhealthy fixations on hosts, or where the illusion of friendship has been weaponized by political extremists to radicalize isolated listeners via right-wing audio pipelines. In conclusion, this research asserts that the podcast medium has successfully monetized human loneliness, transforming the fundamental human desire for connection and community into a highly measurable, highly valuable metric within the global attention economy.

In an era where corporate tech giants continuously strive for frictionless, seamless, and mathematically perfect user interfaces, the deliberate introduction of technological error has emerged as a powerful counter-aesthetic. This article examines the rise of "glitch art," exploring how digital artists and activists intentionally corrupt data files, manipulate hardware, and exploit software bugs to produce fragmented, jagged, and heavily pixelated visual works. By analyzing contemporary exhibitions in Tokyo and Bogota, the research posits that the aestheticized glitch functions as a profound political statement against the hegemony of high-definition corporate media. We argue that the visual manifestation of the glitch—characterized by databending, chromatic aberration, and compression artifacts—forces the underlying, usually invisible architecture of the digital machine to the surface. Drawing upon media archaeology and the critical theory of Rosa Menkman, the study demonstrates how embracing failure and technological malfunction disrupts the capitalist mandate for constant productivity and seamless consumption. The glitch exposes the fragility and inherent instability of the systems that govern modern life. Furthermore, the paper addresses the paradoxical nature of glitch aesthetics, observing how mainstream advertising and pop music videos rapidly appropriate and commodify these subversive visual tropes, effectively neutering their political bite by selling "synthetic failure" as a trendy digital filter. Ultimately, this research concludes that understanding the visual culture of the twenty-first century requires an appreciation for its breakdowns. The true nature of digital media is most clearly revealed not when the machine operates perfectly, but in the exact, spectacular moment of its unexpected structural failure.