Populism and disinformation in Bolsonaro’s tweets
an interdisciplinary analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21878/compolitica.2023.13.1.657Keywords:
Palavras-chave: Populismo. Desinformação. Redes digitais.Abstract
This Interdisciplinary research seeks to understand how the populism present in former president Jair Bolsonaro’s the Twitter posts correlates with the propagation of misinformation, contributes to shift meaning and competes for a hegemonic discursive spot on topics of public interest. Based on communication studies, political science and digital networks and information, we conducted a qualitative analysis of 3,300 tweets obtained using the Twitter Academic API tool. Results show the dominance of populist formulas combined with each other and associated with misinformation strategies, developed by a systematic process of creating deviant meanings for specific events, which are associated with false news and allegations that generate false perceptions and feed disinformation on the Internet.
References
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ERNST, Nicole; BLASSNING, Sina; ENGESSER, Sven; BÜCHEL, Florin; ESSER, Frank. Populists prefer social media over talk shows: An analysis of populist messages and stylistic elements across six countries. Social media + society, Thousand Oaks, v. 5, n. 1, pp. 1-14, 2019. DOI: 10.1177/2056305118823358.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. New York: Longman, 1995.
FAWZI, Nayla. Untrustworthy news and the media as “enemy of the people?” How a populist worldview shapes recipients’ attitudes toward the media. The International Journal of Press/Politics, Thousand Oaks, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 146-164, 2019.
FUKS, Mario; RIBEIRO, Ednaldo; BORBA, Julian. From antipetismo to generalized antipartisanship: the impact of rejection of political parties on the 2018. Brazilian Political Science Review, São Paulo, v. 15, n. 1, pp. 1-28, 2020.
GERBAUDO, Paolo. Populism 2.0: Social media activism, the generic Internet user and interactive direct democracy. New York: Routledge, 2014.
GERBAUDO, Paolo. Social media and populism: an elective affinity? Media, culture & society, Thousand Oaks, v. 40, n. 5, pp. 745-753, 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0163443718772192.
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HAWKINS, Kirk A.; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal Rovira. The ideational approach to populism. Latin American Research Review, Pittsburgh, v. 52, n. 4, pp. 513-528, 2017.
KRÄMER, Benjamin. Populist online practices: the function of the Internet in right-wing populism. Information. Communication & Society, v. 20, n. 9, pp. 1293-1309, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328520.
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LIRA, Luciana Cristina Eneas; ALVES, Regysane Botelho Cutrim. Teoria social do discurso e evolução da análise de discurso crítica. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguísticas e não linguísticas. Parábola: São Paulo, 2018. pp. 104-123.
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MENDONÇA, Ricardo Fabrino; FREITAS, Viviane Gonçalves; AGGIO, Camilo de Oliveira; SANTOS, Nina Fernandes dos. Fake News e o Repertório Contemporâneo de Ação Política. Dados, Rio de Janeiro, v. 66, n. 2, pp. 1-33, 2023. DOI: 10.1590/dados.2023.66.2.301.
MUDDE, Cas. The populist zeitgeist. Government and opposition, v. 39, n. 4, pp. 541-563, 2004. DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.
MUDDE, Cas; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal. Populism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
MUDDE, Cas; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal. Studying populism in comparative perspective: Reflections on the contemporary and future research agenda. Comparative political studies, Thousand Oaks, v. 51, n. 13, pp. 1667-1693, 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0010414018789490.
MÜLLER, Jan-Werner. What is populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
OLIVEIRA NETO, Otávio Temóteo de; DANTAS, Carolina. Pandemia e democracia: disputas de sentido e desinformação sobre a covid-19 a partir do Twitter do ex-presidente Jair Bolsonaro. Revista Debates, Porto Alegre, v. 17, n. 1, pp. 139-161, 2023.
PENTEADO, Claudio Luís de Camargo; GOYA, Denise Hideko; SANTOS, Patrícia Dias do; JARDIM, Luiza. Populismo, desinformação e Covid-19: comunicação de Jair Bolsonaro no Twitter. Media & Jornalismo, Lisboa, v. 22, n. 40, pp. 239-260, 2022. DOI: 10.14195/2183-5462_40_12.
PEREIRA, Frederico Batista et al. Fake News, Fact Checking and Partisanship: The resilience of rumors in the 2018 Brazilian elections. The Journal of Politics, v. 84, n. 04, pp. 2188-2201, 2022. Disponível em: https://journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/719419. Acesso em: 10 dez. 2022.
RIBEIRO, Mauro Luiz de Britto. O Conselho Federal de Medicina e a Covid-19. Portal CFM, 27 jan. 2021. Disponível em: <https://portal.cfm.org.br/artigos/o-conselho-federal-de-medicina-e-a-covid-19/>. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2022.
RIDDER, Jeroen de. What’s so bad about misinformation? Inquiry, pp. 1-23, 2021. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2021.2002187.
ROODUIJN, Matthijs. State of the field: How to study populism and adjacent topics? A plea for both more and less focus. European Journal of Political Research, v. 58, n. 1, pp. 362-372, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12314.
SCOTT, Paul D. Under Siege: The Rise of Right-Wing Populism or has the Demos Become Crazy? Galáxia, São Paulo, n. 42, pp. 5-22, 2019. DOI: 10.1590/1982-25532019344235.
SEIBT, Thaís; DANNENBERG, Murilo. Pandemia, desinformação e discurso autoritário: os sentidos das declarações de Jair Bolsonaro no Twitter a partir de checagens do Aos Fatos. Liinc em Revista, Rio de Janeiro, v. 17, n. 1, pp. 1-27, 2021. DOI: 10.18617/liinc.v17i1.5687.
SØE, Sille Obelitz. A unified account of information, misinformation, and disinformation. Synthese, Berlin, v. 198 n. 6, pp. 5929-5949, 2019. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-019-02444-x.
TAMAKI, Eduardo Ryo; FUKS, Mario. Populism in Brazil’s 2018 general elections: An analysis of Bolsonaro’s campaign speeches. Lua Nova, São Paulo, n. 109, pp. 103-127, 2020. DOI: 10.1590/0102-103127/109.
THOMPSON, John B. Ideologia e Cultura Moderna: Teoria social crítica na era dos meios de comunicação de massa. 9. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Vozes, 2011 [1990].
URBINATI, Nadia. Political theory of populism. Annual review of political science, San Mateo, v. 22, pp. 111-127, 2019. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070753.
VEJA como é feita a auditoria de funcionamento de urnas eletrônicas. Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, 5 dez. 2020. Disponível em: <https://www.tse.jus.br/comunicacao/noticias/2020/Dezembro/veja-como-funciona-a-auditoria-de-funcionamento-das-urnas-eletronicas>. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2022.
VIEIRA, Josenia Antunes; MACEDO, Denise Silva. Conceitos-chave em análise crítica do discurso. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguistas e não linguistas.São Paulo: Parábola, 2018. pp. 48-77.
WAISBORD, Silvio; AMADO, Adriana. Populist communication by digital means: presidential Twitter in Latin America. Information, communication & society, v. 20, n. 9, p. 1330-1346, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328521.
WAISBORD, Silvio. The elective affinity between post-truth communication and populist politics. Communication Research and Practice, v. 4, n. 1, pp. 17-34, 2018. DOI: 10.1080/22041451.2018.1428928.
WHITTAKER, Jason. Tech Giants, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Journalism. New York: Routledge, 2019.
WODAK, Ruth. The Discourse of Politics in action: Politics as Usual. London: Palgrave, 2009.
WODAK, Ruth. Politics as Usual: Investigating political discourse in action. In: GEE, James Paul; HANDFORD, Michael (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: Routledge, 2012.
BROWN, Wendy. American nightmare: Neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and democratization. Political theory, Thousand Oaks, v. 34, n. 6, pp. 690-714, 2006.
CESARINO, Letícia. Como vencer uma eleição sem sair de casa: a ascensão do populismo digital no Brasil. Internet & Sociedade, São Paulo, v. 1, n. 1, pp. 91-120, 2020.
CHADWICK, Andrew; STANYER, James. Deception as a Bridging Concept in the Study of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Misperceptions: Toward a Holistic Framework. Communication Theory, Oxford, v. 32, n. 1, pp. 1-24, 2022. DOI: 10.1093/ct/qtab019.
ENGESSER, Sven; ERNST, Nicole; ESSER, Frank; BÜCHEL, Florin. Populism and social media: How politicians spread a fragmented ideology. Information, communication & society, v. 20, n. 8, pp. 1109-1126, 2017.
ERNST, Nicole; BLASSNING, Sina; ENGESSER, Sven; BÜCHEL, Florin; ESSER, Frank. Populists prefer social media over talk shows: An analysis of populist messages and stylistic elements across six countries. Social media + society, Thousand Oaks, v. 5, n. 1, pp. 1-14, 2019. DOI: 10.1177/2056305118823358.
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. New York: Longman, 1995.
FAWZI, Nayla. Untrustworthy news and the media as “enemy of the people?” How a populist worldview shapes recipients’ attitudes toward the media. The International Journal of Press/Politics, Thousand Oaks, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 146-164, 2019.
FUKS, Mario; RIBEIRO, Ednaldo; BORBA, Julian. From antipetismo to generalized antipartisanship: the impact of rejection of political parties on the 2018. Brazilian Political Science Review, São Paulo, v. 15, n. 1, pp. 1-28, 2020.
GERBAUDO, Paolo. Populism 2.0: Social media activism, the generic Internet user and interactive direct democracy. New York: Routledge, 2014.
GERBAUDO, Paolo. Social media and populism: an elective affinity? Media, culture & society, Thousand Oaks, v. 40, n. 5, pp. 745-753, 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0163443718772192.
GONÇALVES-SEGUNDO, Paulo Roberto. Discurso e prática social. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguistas e não linguistas.São Paulo: Parábola, 2018. pp. 79-103.
HAMELEERS, Michael. Populist disinformation: Exploring intersections between online populism and disinformation in the US and the Netherlands. Politics and Governance, Lisbon, v. 8, n. 1, pp. 146-157, 2020. DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i1.2478.
HAWKINS, Kirk A.; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal Rovira. The ideational approach to populism. Latin American Research Review, Pittsburgh, v. 52, n. 4, pp. 513-528, 2017.
KRÄMER, Benjamin. Populist online practices: the function of the Internet in right-wing populism. Information. Communication & Society, v. 20, n. 9, pp. 1293-1309, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328520.
LACLAU, Ernesto. On populist reason. New York: Verso, 2005.
LAGE, Leandro; SARAIVA, Luiziane Silva. Ressentimento e guerra cultural no populismo de extrema direita: tensões morais e fronteiras de antagonismo. Revista Eco-Pós, Rio de Janeiro, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 124-150, 2021. DOI: 10.29146/ecopos.v24i2.27704.
LIRA, Luciana Cristina Eneas; ALVES, Regysane Botelho Cutrim. Teoria social do discurso e evolução da análise de discurso crítica. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguísticas e não linguísticas. Parábola: São Paulo, 2018. pp. 104-123.
MACHADO, Maria Clara. Presidente sanciona piso dos professores. Portal do MEC, 16 jul. 2008. Disponível em: http://portal.mec.gov.br/proinfantil/apresentacao?task=view&id=10874. Acesso em: 1 jul. 2022.
MARTINS, André R. Nunes. Análise de Discurso da Mídia. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguistas e não linguistas.São Paulo: Parábola, 2018. pp. 158-183.
MCADAM, Doug; TARROW, Sidney; TILLY, Charles. Comparative Perspectives on Contentious Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2009. pp. 260-290. Disponível em: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297938785_Comparative_perspectives_on_contentious_politics. Acesso em: 10 jul. 2022.
MENDONÇA, Ricardo Fabrino; FREITAS, Viviane Gonçalves; AGGIO, Camilo de Oliveira; SANTOS, Nina Fernandes dos. Fake News e o Repertório Contemporâneo de Ação Política. Dados, Rio de Janeiro, v. 66, n. 2, pp. 1-33, 2023. DOI: 10.1590/dados.2023.66.2.301.
MUDDE, Cas. The populist zeitgeist. Government and opposition, v. 39, n. 4, pp. 541-563, 2004. DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.
MUDDE, Cas; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal. Populism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
MUDDE, Cas; KALTWASSER, Cristóbal. Studying populism in comparative perspective: Reflections on the contemporary and future research agenda. Comparative political studies, Thousand Oaks, v. 51, n. 13, pp. 1667-1693, 2018. DOI: 10.1177/0010414018789490.
MÜLLER, Jan-Werner. What is populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
OLIVEIRA NETO, Otávio Temóteo de; DANTAS, Carolina. Pandemia e democracia: disputas de sentido e desinformação sobre a covid-19 a partir do Twitter do ex-presidente Jair Bolsonaro. Revista Debates, Porto Alegre, v. 17, n. 1, pp. 139-161, 2023.
PENTEADO, Claudio Luís de Camargo; GOYA, Denise Hideko; SANTOS, Patrícia Dias do; JARDIM, Luiza. Populismo, desinformação e Covid-19: comunicação de Jair Bolsonaro no Twitter. Media & Jornalismo, Lisboa, v. 22, n. 40, pp. 239-260, 2022. DOI: 10.14195/2183-5462_40_12.
PEREIRA, Frederico Batista et al. Fake News, Fact Checking and Partisanship: The resilience of rumors in the 2018 Brazilian elections. The Journal of Politics, v. 84, n. 04, pp. 2188-2201, 2022. Disponível em: https://journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/719419. Acesso em: 10 dez. 2022.
RIBEIRO, Mauro Luiz de Britto. O Conselho Federal de Medicina e a Covid-19. Portal CFM, 27 jan. 2021. Disponível em: <https://portal.cfm.org.br/artigos/o-conselho-federal-de-medicina-e-a-covid-19/>. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2022.
RIDDER, Jeroen de. What’s so bad about misinformation? Inquiry, pp. 1-23, 2021. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2021.2002187.
ROODUIJN, Matthijs. State of the field: How to study populism and adjacent topics? A plea for both more and less focus. European Journal of Political Research, v. 58, n. 1, pp. 362-372, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12314.
SCOTT, Paul D. Under Siege: The Rise of Right-Wing Populism or has the Demos Become Crazy? Galáxia, São Paulo, n. 42, pp. 5-22, 2019. DOI: 10.1590/1982-25532019344235.
SEIBT, Thaís; DANNENBERG, Murilo. Pandemia, desinformação e discurso autoritário: os sentidos das declarações de Jair Bolsonaro no Twitter a partir de checagens do Aos Fatos. Liinc em Revista, Rio de Janeiro, v. 17, n. 1, pp. 1-27, 2021. DOI: 10.18617/liinc.v17i1.5687.
SØE, Sille Obelitz. A unified account of information, misinformation, and disinformation. Synthese, Berlin, v. 198 n. 6, pp. 5929-5949, 2019. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-019-02444-x.
TAMAKI, Eduardo Ryo; FUKS, Mario. Populism in Brazil’s 2018 general elections: An analysis of Bolsonaro’s campaign speeches. Lua Nova, São Paulo, n. 109, pp. 103-127, 2020. DOI: 10.1590/0102-103127/109.
THOMPSON, John B. Ideologia e Cultura Moderna: Teoria social crítica na era dos meios de comunicação de massa. 9. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Vozes, 2011 [1990].
URBINATI, Nadia. Political theory of populism. Annual review of political science, San Mateo, v. 22, pp. 111-127, 2019. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070753.
VEJA como é feita a auditoria de funcionamento de urnas eletrônicas. Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, 5 dez. 2020. Disponível em: <https://www.tse.jus.br/comunicacao/noticias/2020/Dezembro/veja-como-funciona-a-auditoria-de-funcionamento-das-urnas-eletronicas>. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2022.
VIEIRA, Josenia Antunes; MACEDO, Denise Silva. Conceitos-chave em análise crítica do discurso. In: BATISTA JR, José Ribamar Lopes; SATO, Denise Tamaê Borges; MELO, Iran Ferreira de. Análise de Discurso Crítica para linguistas e não linguistas.São Paulo: Parábola, 2018. pp. 48-77.
WAISBORD, Silvio; AMADO, Adriana. Populist communication by digital means: presidential Twitter in Latin America. Information, communication & society, v. 20, n. 9, p. 1330-1346, 2017. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328521.
WAISBORD, Silvio. The elective affinity between post-truth communication and populist politics. Communication Research and Practice, v. 4, n. 1, pp. 17-34, 2018. DOI: 10.1080/22041451.2018.1428928.
WHITTAKER, Jason. Tech Giants, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Journalism. New York: Routledge, 2019.
WODAK, Ruth. The Discourse of Politics in action: Politics as Usual. London: Palgrave, 2009.
WODAK, Ruth. Politics as Usual: Investigating political discourse in action. In: GEE, James Paul; HANDFORD, Michael (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis. New York: Routledge, 2012.
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2023-11-30
How to Cite
Freitas, A., Vieira, B. M., & Rasquel, S. G. (2023). Populism and disinformation in Bolsonaro’s tweets: an interdisciplinary analysis. Compolítica, 13(1), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.21878/compolitica.2023.13.1.657
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