Social media and political discourse: literature review and framing democracy in social media

• Grant number: 22/08400-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Marcos César Alvarez
• Grantee: Lucas Fonseca Sander
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07923-7 - Center of the Study of Violence - NEV/USP, AP.CEPID

Abstract

This scientific initiation aims to study relations between political communication, social media and the circulation of discourses in contemporary times, in an attempt to understand, particularly, how conversational exchanges on these platforms contribute or hinder the assessment of the legitimacy of democratic institutions, human rights and the uses of violence by the Brazilian population. Initially, the selected student will map the bibliography on the theme, systematizing and summarizing the main national and international researches that constitute this field. Considering the interests of the CEPID project, another bibliographical survey will be requested, specific about the formation and dispersion of authoritarian discourse in social media. Subsequently, the fellow will assist in the analysis of the framings given to the democratic regime, human rights, and state violence in the messages collected from social media for our research by monitoring conservative right-wing groups and pages. This work will be fundamental to help the group systematize the bibliography of this line of research, observe how these modify the discursive dynamics, analyze the general trends of the use of networks by political actors, as well as the proximities and peculiarities between the Brazilian case and international experiences. (AU)