Emoções e disputa narrativa nas eleições de 2022: o antagonismo político no X durante o debate presidencial

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the political narrative dispute on social media and examine how emotions are utilized as tools to enhance engagement and foster identification with specific political groups while fueling antagonism towards others. The central hypothesis posits that emotions play a pivotal role in political discourse on social media, acting as an envelope in constructing frames and narratives that fuel political antagonism. The research focuses on analyzing posts on X related to the last televised debate between Jair Bolsonaro and Lula on October 28, 2022. A total of 3,263,076 posts from October 28 to 29 related to the electoral debate were analyzed. In addition to quantitative approaches, the research employed topic modeling, using BERTopic to identify the main themes present in the posts. Therefore, this thesis begins at the intersection of politics and emotion, building upon studies that analyze antagonism and emotion as part of the political process. Through quantitative analysis, periods of increased engagement during the political debate are observed to understand the processes of circulation and visibility on social media. Subsequently, the concept of narrative dispute is addressed, arguing that social media, due to its structure, serves as a privileged arena for the construction of antagonistic framings about political events. Finally, the discussion advances to the role of emotions, investigating the presence of fear, hatred, and humor in the most shared posts during the period. Thus, this research suggests an integrated approach, considering both the role of social media in political dispute and the use of emotions as tools for narrative dispute and accentuation of antagonism in digital spaces. The goal is to contribute to understanding the political dynamics on social media and to initiate a dialogue on the construction of political disputes in contemporary democracy.