Internet interaction and ideology: excess and attenuation

Abstract

From the perspective of French Semiotics, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of discourses that circulate on websites and social networks, which are mainly characterized by political altercations, polarization and excesses in enunciative relations through entrenched and passionate ideological positions (Barros, 2014; 2015; 2016). On the other hand, other websites and texts, such as the Slow Movement, are moving in the opposite direction– searching, apparently, for deceleration. To this end, we will analyze Brazilian ex-Minister of Education’s personal Twitter posts, collected between September and October 2019, and sites aligned with the Slow Movement (such as Ciclo Vivo) that advocate atony and values ​​of contemplation, balance and harmony, in addition to related reports in Portuguese and Brazilian newspapers. The analysis will mainly consider intensive syntax and the tensive categories of blending and sorting to determine ideological values, while observing the discursive aspects of aspectualization and argumentation. The analysis points to different degrees of convergence regarding thematics and intensification.