Democracia, comunicação científica e plataformas digitais: as artes como mediação ética e transformadora do conhecimento

Abstract

This article discusses the relationships between democracy, scientific communication, and the arts, analyzing how artistic practices can function as forms of mediation, humanization, and democratization of knowledge in contemporary contexts marked by structural inequalities and the logic of digital platforms. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, it brings together contributions from communication studies, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and critical education to examine the effects of contemporary capitalism on emotions, knowledge production processes, and regimes of symbolic circulation. The text mobilizes the song “Marujo” by the band Puro Suco, as well as elements of Brazilian popular culture, especially the figure of Iara, as metaphors for the experience of knowledge understood as a collective journey, traversed by tensions, displacements, and possibilities of social transformation. It argues that scientific communication must move beyond strictly technical models, incorporating cultural, aesthetic, and emotional dimensions capable of broadening access to knowledge, strengthening democratic practices, and fostering more inclusive forms of social participation.