Hate Speech in Cyber Society of Brazil: Portraits of the Elections in 2014 by Critical Analysis of Norman Fairclough
Silvia Regina Pochmann de Quevedo
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the discursive practices and beliefs produced in the Brazilian presidential elections by
hate speech from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) proposed by Norman Fairclough (2001), which
includes speech and interprets its effects from the contextualization social problem. The study includes the semiotic
process involving multiple languages and structural analysis. The research focused on the cybersociety portrayed by
Facebook, the social network more accessible in Brazil. In October 2014 Brazil experienced a fierce campaign for the
presidency in 30 years, since the end of military dictatorship and the first with a great impact on social networks. This
campaign, which had Facebook as massive platform of public debate, gave rise to a hate speech and fielded two armies
that battled in the virtual world. This article demonstrates the emerging hatred found in Brazilian cybersociety for the
first time in the most intense period, the second round of the election campaign. The study aimed to investigate how
each candidate was represented discursively over that period, what kinds of beliefs were produced and, consequently,
that representation of reality social network offered. From the identification of a social problem - the reason was the
emergence of hate - the social and discursive analysis proposed by Fairclough, under the sign of the numerous
semiosis web language, punctuate the social barriers and social interests not solve it does, and identify the possibilities
of overcoming these same obstacles. The method involved systematic review of literature with the interdisciplinary
databases and participant observation in the social network, with collection of 281 screens through print screen. The
screens were organized in spreadsheet from the concepts: Aécio Neves, Dilma Rousseff, Lula, FHC, PT, PSDB, Voters
Pro-Aécio, Voters Pro-Dilma, robots and media. The concepts were crossed with the following categories: different
stages of impact of hate, tolerance and convergence, which resulted in modalities under which the screens were
indexed via hyperlinks. The discursive analysis Fairclough revealed that the Brazilian, seen as peaceful and friendly,
was able to achieve the greatest degree of hatred that period hatred that incites violence. The candidate Dilma
Rousseff (Workers Party) received the highest number of attacks this level, being associated by opponents voters a
sense of demonization and terror, and portrayed as drunk, incompetent, stupid, ugly, liar, among other adjectives. The
candidate Aécio Neves (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) is represented, in the view of opponents voters as cocaine
user, drunk, liar and wife beater. The study showed a behavior speculate among netizens, here called mirroring, when
both armies copied strategies from convergence marks. The discursive reality presented together with its social
implications demonstrates that investments in education need to be expanded so massive and that the break with the
current economic model can represent a large and profitable social progress for the country.
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