Social Network Research from the Bakhtinian Perspective of Dialogism and Responsiveness

The Negation of Science (between)seen in Technodiscourses on X/Twitter

Abstract

It is undeniable that current social relations are affected by statements circulating on the Web. This is evidenced by the growing number of researches on objects arising from technodiscourses (Paveau, 2021) in the routines of citizens, such as the impact of social networks on the dissemination of science and scientific denialism. Thinking about the potential of the web and discursive affects, the aim is to present data collection procedures in a virtual environment that deal with science denial comments made on Veja’s X/Twitter account (@Veja) in articles on health sciences during the period when the pandemic was worsening in Brazil (March 2020) and how these comments are dialogical and responsive (Bakhtin, 2015; 2016; Volóchinov, 2018) to the discourses of authority (Volóchinov, 2018) of Jair Bolsonaro, former President of Brazil. The research is based on a qualitative approach (Flick, 2009; Minayo, 2012) inspired by netnography (Kozinets, 2014) and follows these procedures: a) using X/Twitter’s own search tool, we looked for news based on keywords about health sciences (CAPES, 2022); then, b) we categorised the comments with denialism into specific words; after that, c) we created a word cloud with the most recurrent terms; after that, d) we did a careful search on google.com these same negationisms in government speeches in Brazil and, finally, e) it was analyzed how these comments recover meanings from Bolsonaro’s speeches about the pandemic. The analyses show that the discourses of science denial present in the comments are in a dialogical-responsive relationship with the former President’s discourses.