Campo jornalístico na pós-verdade: estratégias argumentativas de um jornalismo político desafiado pela desinformação

Abstract

The thesis discusses the discursive-argumentative strategies of contemporary journalism in its efforts to maintain its role as a primary source of information for society. It reflects on the delegitimization processes that journalism has undergone, mainly due to the exponential growth of Information and Communication Technologies and the consequent increase in the use of digital social networks. The thesis argues that changes in the communication ecosystem have a direct impact on the provision of content to society and on the quality of the material distributed. The decline in the credibility of journalism is evident from the shift away from consuming journalistic information to the consumption of diverse, unverified information, commonly referred to as fake news (TANDOC et al., 2017; LAZER et al., 2018; DOURADO; GOMES, 2019), which is one of the nomenclatures given to disinformation (WARDLE; DERAKHSHAN, 2017), in a time sociologically defined as post-modernity (LYOTARD, 2020). The proliferation of disinformation and its effects is understood under the concept of post-truth (TESICH, 1992; OXFORD LANGUAGES, 2016; ZARZALEJOS, 2017; MCINTYRE, 2018; ARAÚJO, 2020), a term that denotes the irrelevance of truth and rationality, which are replaced by emotions and beliefs in forming opinions. Against this backdrop, the thesis seeks to identify the ethos (MAINGUENEAU, 2020; AMOSSY, 2018b) that the journalistic field affirms in the face of post-truth, the strategies that journalism uses to defend itself, and the alternatives the field has to preserve its social legitimacy. The study investigates 389 editorials of the brazilian newspapers Folha de S.Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo, and O Globo between 2019 and 2022, using the Argumentative Discursive Analysis methodology (AMOSSY, 2018a; 2018c; CHARAUDEAU, 2015b; ORLANDI, 2015; 1990; PÊCHEUX, 1990), which is designed to answer the questions that motivate this research. The methodology combines discourse analysis and Corpus Linguistics and confirms the possibility of expanding the inferences of traditional DA to a large set of texts. The text begins with an introductory socio-historical contextualization, presenting the contemporary journalistic field as a space of uncertainty about its future. It discusses the influence of economics on journalism, its structure as an institution and political subject, its role as a discourse enunciator, and the ethos that configures journalism in this context. The text then addresses information disorders (WARDLE; DERAKHSHAN, 2017) under the concept of post-truth and presents the theoretical-methodological support from Discourse Analysis and Argumentative Analysis, which originate Argumentative Discursive Analysis (AMOSSY, 2018a; 2018c; CHARAUDEAU, 2015b; ORLANDI, 2015; 1990; PÊCHEUX, 1990). The text describes the role of the reader as an essential element in the construction of the argumentative strategy in political editorials and also discusses Corpus Linguistics software and its application to Argumentative Discourse Analysis. The Argumentative Discursive Analysis of the editorials reveals uniformity in the way the three newspapers present their main values. Based on shared evidence and personal pronouns, they expose their values of reinforcement to the journalistic ethos (ethics, credibility, and impartiality) and establish a link with the readers. These values are added to another important value, the defense of democracy, which further reinforces the perspective of journalism as a political actor. The newspapers also establish a sense of belonging by including themselves in the “Brazilians” set, which helps them to connect with their readers. Finally, the newspapers use various strategies that value argumentation through logical reasoning, historical arguments, analogies, and illustrations. In conclusion, the main strategy of editorials is to establish a bond with the audience through universally recognized values, and the argumentative schemes are used to validate these premises. The journalism that the editorials defend corresponds to the classic ideals of the field, and while they uphold traditional values, they also defend professional activity as a necessary action for the defense of democracy.