POPULIST DISCOURSE IN JOURNALISTIC CONSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ARGENTINE CACEROLAZO AND BRAZILIAN PANELAÇO

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the relationship among journalism, populism and digital media. Thus, we observe how the journalistic texts, when producing narratives about the socio-political manifestations known as “cacerolazo”, in 2012/2013 in Argentina, during the government of Cristina Kirchner, and “panelaço”, in 2015 in Brazil, during the government of Dilma Rousseff, reinforce the process of propagation of discursive elements that meddle with the logic of populism and intertwine with the populist tendencies of the contemporary, which have been called algorithmic populism and/or digital populism. By promoting the circulation of certain speeches (and not others), under the discursive effect of evidence, as if they were only “facts reports”, based on the illusion of neutrality and impartiality, the journalistic constructions produce a determination of meanings, that are affiliated with given discursive practices, marked in a socio-historical way. The journalistic activity when appropriating the populist discourse contributes to the installation of polarities and dichotomies in the political scenario that resulted, in the Argentine context, to the collapse of Kirchnerism in 2015, and in the Brazilian context, to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. In order to illustrate our discussion, we will analyze, from the theoretical-methodological perspective of Discourse Analysis, some headlines, excerpts from reports and photographs, available on the websites of the Argentine newspapers Clarín and La Nación and the Brazilian newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and O Globo, at the time of the mentioned events.

Keywords:
Argentine cacerolazo and Brazilian panelaço; jornalism; populist discourse