Fundamentalism and Late Modernity: use of digital media and the production of uncertainty

Abstract

This article aims to examine the relationship between the rise of fundamentalist discourses, the use of two digital communication methods, and the production of uncertainty. This production of uncertainty emerges as a communication and dissemination strategy, not of truths that bring a sense of security, but of post-truths and fake news. Instead of producing enlightenment, it generates confusion, alienation, prejudice, and violence. These ideas were disseminated through my fingers in Late Modernity, which becomes paradoxical in relation to the Enlightenment promise of human liberation through technological evolution, since, instead of promoting or achieving it, they seem to be consciously imprisoning us. This debate is justified because it has profoundly influenced human social organization, in addition to producing the polarization and fragmentation of society, reviving fundamentalist discourses that seemed already forgotten. This exploratory and theoretical reflection seeks to support this debate, drawing on authors of media theory such as Marshall McLuhan and Eugênio Rondini Trivinho, along with sociology authors such as Zygmunt Bauman, Hartmut Rosa, and Eliana Sanches de Frias. In addition to questioning the relationship between the media, the sense of uncertainty, and the revival and increased dissemination of fundamentalist discourses, another important issue is expanding the concept of fundamentalism, beyond religious discourses.