Construção de imagens públicas na sociedade de plataforma: estratégias discursivas adotadas pelos candidatos à prefeitura de Santa Maria/RS em 2020

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the discursive building of political public images from candidates for mayor at Santa Maria/RS/Brazil at the municipal election campaign in 2020, at social media platforms. We started from a critical approach of the usage of platforms, considering their effects on the building of images and public opinions that reconfigure the social space. The question that steers the research asks what are the discursive strategies used by the candidates in the construction of their own public image at their oficial Facebook profiles. The aim goes through to identify the strategies used at the discourses and to understand how they fit or incorporate the functionalities of the social media platforms. In order to answer the main problem and the objectives, we used the methodology of discursive-argumentative analysis, understanding that political discourses are naturally persuasive and act in order to construct the political ethos . We have raised fourteen discursive strategies from the literature, which were adopted as categories and identified at the political discourses using the software Atlas.ti as tool. The most used strategies were “charisma”, “shared beliefs”, “dramatization” and “willingness to act”, indicating that at the municipal elections the candidate’s aim is to construct a friendly image more than a competent one. Furthermore, we have surveyed the most used content shapes by the candidates and compared these informations with the strategies already identified, concluding that the political discourses are subject to adaptation according to the limitations and possibilities of the medium.