Online communication strategies of the anti-system political movement: analysis of political parties PSL (Brazil) and M5S (Italy)

• Grant number: 19/16440-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2019
• End date: October 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Caroline Kraus Luvizotto
• Grantee: Milena Carolina de Almeida
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil and in Italy, parties with anti-system ideology came to power through popular elections in 2018. In Italy, the Cinque Stelle Movement (M5S) was the legend most voted and, allied with the Northern League political party, elected Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. At the Brazil, the Liberal Social Party (PSL) was the most voted subtitle, electing the country's president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Analyzing the trajectory of these parties, as well as the course of the these elections, we observed that the massive use of online communication was a important factor to victory. From the examples of the Liberal Social Party, in Brazil, and the Cinque Stelle Movement, in Italy, we expected to understand the digital communication strategies of political parties and what potential these strategies have for promoting online political participation of citizens. We specifically expected: to understand the antisystem movement and differentiate the Brazilian and the Italian case; know the route history of the political parties object of this study and situate them as anti-system parties; identify and analyze the digital communication strategies of both parties based on the analysis of their institutional websites and official Facebook pages; measure, from the analysis of the official websites and social networks of these political parties, the political participation of Brazilian and Italian citizens. To achieve these objectives, an exploratory, descriptive and analytical qualitative-quantitative research will be conducted. This study is expected to contribute to understanding the characteristics of the anti-system political trend and the influence that online interaction has about democratic processes today. (AU)