Virtual reactions and reputation in the political behavior of the Federal Supreme Court

• Grant number: 20/12064-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2021
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: Luís Virgílio Afonso da Silva
• Grantee: Bianca de Figueiredo Melo Villas Bôas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Acknowledging the growing influence of pressures on networks and their consequences for contemporary democracies, the project intends to investigate how public opinion on social media operates specifically on the Brazilian supreme court's political behavior and reputation. While the legal and political literature states that social networks change the course of democratic institutions and that constitutional cuts are influenced by public opinion and social esteem about them, the research questions what is the reputation of the STF in the networks and in what ways the court reacts to this digital pressure in an effort to swerve or confirm the reputation produced. In order to test the general hypothesis that public opinion on social networks is a thermometer of the Brazilian supreme court's reputation and that it has adopted institutional practices, procedural or individually by its Ministers, in order to respond to virtual pressures, an empirical study will be made from of Social Network Analysis and Content Analysis methods applied to Twitter. The work is justified by offering a transdisciplinary approach through innovative methodologies of Social Communication applied to Law, confronting the currently existing diagnoses on social networks and their political consequences with the behavior of the Federal Supreme Court, which, in turn, is also part fundamental in understanding the challenges to be faced by Brazilian democracy at present.