UMBERTO ECO: Guerra y web 2.0, decepción y esperanza frente a los medios digitales del siglo XXI

Abstract

2016 saw Umberto Eco, semiologist and philosopher pass away in Milan. He was one of the most influential European intellectuals. His novel ‘The Name of the Rose’ gave him notoriety as a novelist and semiotic. At the end on the 1970s, he published ‘Apocalypse Postponed’, which proposes a mediation between radicalism and the intellectual indulgence on studies about mass media. It also revindicates the unforeseen uses and interpretations that common people make of media messages. However, in one of his lasts interviews, he strongly criticises internet use and social networks. He outlines some remarks on the consequences of extremely flexible and permissive digital milieus in a globalised world. The following essay explores what seems to be a radical change of view for Eco on this subject (which was latent throughout his work), and his disappointment vis-a-vis the use of social media like the Web 2.0