Mobilizations on social networks: the Spanish political party Podemos and the Brazilian political-electoral scenario

• Grant number: 18/11714-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 20, 2018
• End date: October 05, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Carla Montuori Fernandes
• Grantee: Carla Montuori Fernandes
• Host Investigator: Eva Campos-Dominguez
• Host Institution: Vice-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade Paulista (UNIP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Valladolid (UVa), Spain

Abstract

The goal of the project "Mobilizations on social networks: the Spanish political party Podemos and the Brazilian political-electoral scenario" is to establish a line of research titled "Media Studies: Brazil-Spain" between the Postgraduate course in Media Communication and Culture from the Paulista University (Brazil) and the Graduate Program in Arts and Human Studies, from the University of Valladolid (Spain). The research objects sought a dialogue with conjunctural contexts in politics and in the means of communication of these same respective countries. In this sense, in order to cover the field of political communication, the research will seek to map and analyze the messages transmitted about the Brazilian political scenario on the political party Podemos' Twitter, with the intention of unveiling the narrative adopted by the Spanish political party during the period that extends to the decree on the arrest of the former President Lula (PT), on April 5, 2018, until the results of the polls that will elect the next president of Brazil in October of the same year. There are already recurring manifestations from the political party Podemos on Twitter about the troubled Brazilian political scenario, with frequent criticism on the process of impeachment that culminated with the arrival of President Michel Temer (MDB) to power. After the dispatch of the arrest warrant for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) by the Federal Court, contrary inferences intensified. With the proximity of the electoral scene, the research intends to answer if the political party Podemos, situated in the political spectrum of the European left, mobilized to support any candidate in the presidential elections of Brazil, as well as to emphasize the repercussion of the messages propagated by the Spanish political party in the newspapers with the greatest national circulation, namely: Folha de S. Paulo and Estado de São Paulo. The purpose of this paper is to infer the mobilizing character of the political party Podemos, which, with only four years of existence (2014), extends the political-party engagement beyond the European context, using the mechanisms of social networks, and finds in the hegemonic media, in the Brazilian case, reach and visibility.