NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND THE CURRENT COMMUNICATIONS MODEL IN THE 2018 BRAZILIAN ELECTIONS (original) (raw)

LÔBO, Edilene; MORAIS, Jose Luis Bolzan de. New technologies and the current communications model in the 2018 brazilian elections. Revista Novos Estudos Jurídicos, UNIVALI, Itajaí, v.24, n.3, set./dez. de 2019.

Novos Estudos Jurídicos, 2019

This article considers the impact of new technologies in the 2018 Brazilian elections, and investigates the possibilities of changes due to the prominent use of social networks to directly connect citizens and candidates, without the customary intervention of political parties and traditional media. It also questions the role of fake news in the electoral process, and the means to fight it, without undermining free thought, as an essential human right for the practice of citizenship in the new digital age.

New technologies, Social Media and Democracy

Opinión Jurídica, 2021

This article aims to consider the impact of new technologies in the Brazilian elections of 2018, questioning about the possibilities of its transformation with the prominent use of social networks to directly connect citizens and candidates, without the customary intervention of political parties and traditional media. It also aims to discuss the role of fake news in the electoral process and the means to fight it, so it does not denature the free thought formation as a human right essential to the practice of citizenship in the new digital age.

Constitution, democracy, regulation of the internet and electoral fake news in Brazilian elections | Constituição, democracia, regulação da internet e fake news nas eleições brasileiras

Revista Publicum, 2019

In the last general election held in Brazil, Laura Chinchilla, a representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission, considered the massive use of fake news through social networks, notably WhatsApp, an "unprecedented" phenomenon. The statement registers a state of novelty and, at the same time, uncertainty in the legal and social scenario of the Brazilian democracy, which since 1996 has strongly invested in the computerization of the electoral process and has specifically regulated the phenomenon of Internet use in the electoral process. Thus, a great question arises about the role that the advances of the digital world, more specifically the Internet and social networks, can play in defining the democratic agenda, especially when they place on the one hand democratic legitimacy and respect for human rights and on the other the extent of economic and social power (including its abuse) enhanced by individuals and groups. In this way, this work seeks to analyze the legal frameworks for the use of the Internet in the Brazilian elections and how the existing normativity responds to the fake news phenomenon and its implications for the full realization of constitutional democracy. In order to do so, the paper proposes a comparison between the existing legislation in Brazil on electoral use of the Internet and its appropriation and effectiveness (or absence thereof) in decisions of the Brazilian electoral courts, including the Superior Electoral Court, seeking to understand how the established dialogue between norms and judicial decisions reflects more or less effectiveness of the existing regulation for the use of the Internet and social networks in the elections, delimiting if the degree of effectiveness presented accomplishes or frustrates the constitutional bases of democracy in Brazil.

Brazilian elections in social media: reviewing and systematizing the results of the main researches

This article presents and compares, through a literature review, the results of the major researches that discuss communication strategies taken in the social media by candidates running for public positions during the political campaigns in Brazil from 2010 on. The digital media have gained relevance in the Brazilian political context in the wake of the popularity " phenomenon " achieved by Barack Obama – especially on the Internet – during 2008 US presidential elections, and due to the changes in Brazil's electoral legislation, which took place in the following year, and allowed the candidates to use those tools in their campaign strategy. In order to support such analysis, scientific articles published in journals and/or presented at national conferences on communication, sociology and political science have been chosen. The selected essays focused on characterising and discussing the use of social media by candidates running for the positions of president of the republic, state governor, senator, congressman, state representative, city mayor and/or councillor in the elections of 2010, 2012 and/or 2014. By the end of the review, one compares the main findings of the cases discussed, and debates the common characteristics among them by setting the hypothesis that they can be defined as standard electoral communication strategies in social media developed by competitors running for mayor and proportional representative positions in Brazil. As a conclusion, one affirms that some strategies can be considered as standard, due to the high frequency of incidence in different campaigns, while the other one needs further research on the subject for its effective evidence.

Twitter in Political Campaigns: The Brazilian 2014 Presidential Elections (draft version)

This chapter discusses the use of social media for political campaigns in the run-up to the 2014 Brazilian presidential elections. We present the political system in the country that developed as a multiparty system in the aftermath of the democratic transition in 1985. We monitored the Twitter accounts of candidates in Brazil's presidential election and report on the potential impact of social media during the run-up to the 2014 presidential elections in Brazil. Finally, we discuss the different strategies adopted by presidential candidates across different social media platforms.

Internet and Election Campaigns in Brazil: Lessons from the 2014 Presidential Election

March 15 this year, hundreds of thousands protesters went to the streets of major Brazilian cities to demand the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, recently reelected running by the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers " Party or PT). There were no doubts about the result of the election or serious contestation about the vote counting or the electoral process as a whole: Nearly all observers considered the 2014 Brazilian elections as being legal and fair, and observed that opposition candidates had free access to the media. Indeed, mainstream media provided challenger candidates with a much more positive coverage than Dilma Rousseff. The alleged reason for the impeachment was a series of denounces about political corruption – in particular a huge scandal involving Brazilian gigantic oil company Petrobrás business and its collusive relationship with Brazilian politicians. The scandal implicated politicians from nearly all political parties, including the opposition ones, and there was no evidence about Dilma " s involvement on the scandal. Instead, the real motivation behind the protests appeared to be a strong sense of frustration shared by the supporters of Aécio Neves, the main oppositionist candidate who lost the election by a narrow, three percent margin in the second round of the Presidential election, after a bitter electoral campaign. Political circumstances help to explain why the 2014 Presidential campaign was so exceptionally intense. For the first time since 2002, it seemed possible for a PSDB " s oppositionist taking Presidency back, after three consecutive terms of PT ahead of the Executive office. As it happened before, the mainstream media portrayed PT government in an essentially negative way. However, an additional factor helps to explain the high intensity of 2014 campaign: The very important role that social media played on it, as an arena for political disputes. Although Twitter and Facebook have been already working in Brazil during the 2010 election campaign, they were still in an early adoption phase. In 2014, however, the scenario was entirely different: By that time, Brazil was the second largest market in the world for Facebook, Twitter, and

Internet, the press and Brazilian elections: agenda-setting on real time

This research paper broaches the relations between the electoral campaigns of the main presidential candidates to the 2002 Brazilian elections and the Internet, by analyzing the coverage of political agenda originated by the campaign official websites on the digital and paper versions of the national daily newspapers Jornal do Brasil and O Globo. This particular campaign was the first Brazilian electoral occasion in which Internet played a significant role as an efficient media; our analysis reveals a good example of the strategic use of the web to provoke real-time news, which ended up amplified by printed media, strengthening attacks which would otherwise not gain such a space or repercussion.

Social Networks and Mobile Instant Messaging Services in the Election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil in 2018

Dados

Studies that have used survey data to analyze the reasons behind the Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential victory in 2018 have highlighted factors such as conservative ideology, antipetismo (resentment against the Brazilian Workers’ Party) and populism. In all of them, media variables are treated superficially, as if their role in politics and elections was simply to “deliver a message” to voters. We contest this view that the media played a secondary role in voters’ decisions, emphasizing instead the effects of social networks and mobile instant messaging services. Based on data from the Brazilian Electoral Study, a post-electoral survey, we show that the use of Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube as sources of political information almost doubled the odds of one voting for Bolsonaro. This places them at a level of importance similar to that of other variables, such as anti-pluralist discourse, religious values and right-wing ideology.

How Important is Twitter to Local Elections in Brazil? A Case Study of Fortaleza City Council

Studies on the effects of the internet on elections have revealed how Social Network Sites (SNSs) are used by citizens to learn about, choose and contact their representatives. This article analyzes 27 Twitter accounts managed by Fortaleza's city councilors who ran for reelection in October 2012. The study aimed to discover the importance ofTwitter in the councilors'campaign strategies: what kind of messages were sent by the councilors who adopted digital communication strategies to their followers, and the relationship between party affiliation and e-campaigns. The article shows that communitarian sociability, understood as face-to-face relations or interactions among individuals, affects how the internet is used in local campaigns, since there is no direct relationship between electoral success and the heavy use of Twitter by candidates, at least in proportional local elections (which are defined as cases in which candidates do not necessarily need to reach the votes of a majority of constituents, but only a part of them). However, those who adopt a digital communication strategy use it to broadcast their political platforms and promote their campaign events. Finally, except for small left-wing parties,there appears to be no relationship between party affiliation and e-campaigns.