Discourse, controversy and persuasion

an analysis of the verbal-visual production of the Brazilian extreme right on sensitive social topics on X (Twitter)

Abstract

The study focuses on the analysis of the rhetorical strategies, values ​​and political imaginaries mobilized by the Brazilian radical right in the online environment, taking into account the use of controversy as an argumentative dimension of techno-discourse of a verbal-visual nature. To this end, a qualitative analysis was carried out on four publications collected from former president Jair Bolsonaro's profile on X (Twitter), observing the sign-symptoms that mobilize value systems in public controversies on sensitive social topics. The theoretical-methodological basis is based on French Discourse Analysis, in particular, on Semiolinguistics. Specially used were studies by Amossy (2017, 2020) and Charaudeau (2015, 2020) on controversy and argumentation, the notion of technodiscourse proposed by Paveau (2013, 2017) and the contributions of Barthes (1990) on messages connoted in a verbal-visual discourse. Through analysis, we observed the controversy as an argumentative strategy of the techno-discourse produced by the Brazilian radical right on social networks.