Interpretative Paths: The media circulation of Bolsonaro’s statements and the construction of the sexist and authoritarian discourse

Abstract

Common practice in the media today, especially in the journalistic routine of editing titles or other calls, the highlight of small statements to circulate in other arenas is a way of emphasizing and building meaning. This article aims to describe and analyze how an interview with Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), candidate for the presidency of Brazilian republic in 2018, regarding his assets and the receipt of the so-called ‘housing assistance’ and the interpretive route projected by the media from the circulation of the statements highlighted by the vehicles that reproduced the original interview. We mobilize concepts from the French Discourse Analyses, specially of detachability, overassertion and aphorization proposed by Maingueneau (2008, 2011, 2014) to form an exploratory study, with a bibliographic nature, through discourse analysis. The analysis authorizes to state that the detachability and the overassertion potentiate the production and circulation of enunciative maneuvers, guiding the readers in the construction of meanings. Readers were mobilized to interpret the highlights, seeking to (re)construct or (rein)force the sense of a macho, authoritarian and even misogynist candidate discredited to take a position in the federal government.

Keywords

• detachability
• overassertion
• aphorization