The rhizome

Concept, definitions, and applications as an analysis methodology in communication and culture

Résumé

This article aims to explain the concept of rhizome proposed by Deleuze and Guattari. We approach the mentioned concept, its properties and principles from the book Mil platôs (1995). To do so, we first highlight the importance of the elaboration of concepts in philosophy, according to these authors, and then we discuss the concept of rhizome and its developments. A term extracted from Botany, the rhizome is a type of root without a central stem, which spreads and branches out, being able to generate equivalent segments, equally capable of connecting to any other. Transposed to the context of contemporary media, and given its multiple and acentric nature, capable of connecting the most diverse spheres, such as technology, culture and society, this concept can be applied as a methodology for analyzing various cultural and communication processes and products, which we present as an example: the maps of mediations by Jesús Martín-Barbero, addressed by Lopes (2018); the rhizome as a hypertextual reading strategy, according to Santis (2020); and the rhizome as a methodology for media and social mapping of events, according to Frigo (2019). The rhizome proves to be particularly important in the digital contemporaneity for conceptually describing non-linear forms of reading, traditional in hypertext media such as the world wide web, as well as being relevant for research in the field of Communication and Culture for pointing out multiple paths to produce meanings, especially in the complexity of today’s societies and digital media.