Grammars of contestation and pluralism: Paulo Freire’s action in Brazil’s periphery and the rise of right-wing discourse on YouTube

Abstract

This article examines YouTube videos that feature right-wing discourses from Brazil’s periphery based on perspectives extracted from Paulo Freire’s ideas of action for liberation. The findings from a survey conducted from one year before the 2018 elections until one year later combined with a multimodal discourse analysis have pointed to the formation of a new grammar of contestation that discusses socioeconomic, racial, and gender issues in a discourse identified with the right. The Freirean notion of action helps to enlighten aspects that indicate the rise in critical action and pluralism from the periphery, despite the politics of the right that a few media producers have entertained.

Conspiracy Theories and White Supremacy on YouTube: Exploring Affiliation and Legitimation Strategies in YouTube Comments

“…These are discursive practices that have also been closely linked to xenophobic discourses, such as islamophobia (Farkas et al, 2018; Shooman, 2016) and antisemitism (Allington et al, 2021). Previous qualitative research into deceptive content on YouTube, has explored right-wing extremist communities (Ekman, 2014; Levy, 2020; Lewis, 2018), racist influencers (Johns, 2017; Murthy & Sharma, 2019), populist YouTubers (Finlayson, 2020; Zuk & Zuk, 2020), and conspiracy videos (Allington & Joshi, 2020; Mohammed, 2019; Paolillo, 2018). Critical discourse analysis of YouTube videos have focused on understanding discourses of xenophobia (Asakitikpi & Gadzikwa, 2020), misogyny (Kopytowska, 2021), and racism (Hokka, 2021).…”

A visão de desenvolvimento e mudança social de Freire: experiências do passado, desafios do presente e perspectivas para o futuro

“…Suzina (2018) descreveu o Brasil como uma democracia assimétrica porque, além das desigualdades estruturais e históricas, seus cidadãos dificilmente conseguem intervir na (re)definição da ordem social, ou seja, é uma barreira quase impossível de ser ultrapassada por grupos sociais marginalizados. Levy (2020) oferece um exemplo ilustrativo disso, mostrando uma periferia que se cansou de ser (mantida) silenciosa e, assim, desenvolveu gramáticas de contestação para expressar suas reivindicações e opiniões. Embora vindo de circunstâncias muito diferentes, um sentimento semelhante de falta de voz é descrito por Vrydagh e Jiménez-Martínez (2020), que argumentam que a polarização observada no Brasil foi sustentada por percepções, mais do que por diferenças irreconciliáveis.…”