Bolsonaro and the journalism in media conflict

Abstract

Since Jair Messias Bolsonaro took charge as the President of the Republic of Brazil, in 2018, we have been witnessed mutual attacks between some media institutions and the President. Both protagonists confront each other on networks interactions often exaggerated. Therefore, they end up forging the image of one another, through pathemic argumentative resources to persuade citizens with their truths and ideological positions. On one hand, part of the media reports Bolsonaro’s impudence and inanity. On the other hand, the president defends himself by accusing the media of being biased and perfidious. This dissension ends up by involving Bolsonaro, the media and the public, inquiring them in their beliefs or passions and, by reflection, forges their own collective identity. Considering the context of this incongruous and polarized scenario, we propose to analyze discursively, with the theoretical assistance of the Discourse Analysis, the Rhetoric and Argumentation the permanent reconstruction of the identities of the enunciative instances and the strategic use of emotions as a rhetorical-argumentative structure to affect their respective public. In view of the vast material available, we selected as a corpus for analysis, four online news and seven presidential social media posts published in the last couple years (2019-2020). As a result, we will have showed that both protagonists use their rhetoric and argumentative tools to, in their own way, forge their ethos, justify their political and ideological positions, to confront the other part involved and persuade the public into their causes.