Abstract
Our exposure to immeasurable amounts of news and information constitutes a distinctive mark of the digital age. However, it is well-known that part of this information is either inaccurate, manipulated, or directly fabricated. In times of information overload, members of society must understand how misinformation networks operate. This paper identifies and dissects the networks of production and distribution of fake news in Brazil, giving special focus to the actors involved in disseminating them. It also examines how fake news discourses relate to reactionary populism and other variants of political authoritarianism. As something durable and enduring, the misinformation industries consist of numerous aspects, such as funding networks, channels of production and distribution, ideological systems, and different political actors. The use of misinformation and fake news to favor Jair Bolsonaro during the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections demonstrates that these narratives have the potential to damage electoral processes and prop up political groups interested in destabilizing democratic systems. This paper takes an approach that blends different theoretical frameworks of media studies and political science, such as the political economy of the Internet, frame analysis, fake news theories, the rise of the far-right and other antidemocratic movements, dependency theories, and decolonization approaches. It also explores how growing inequality in the global South and the consolidation of the far-right as a global and long-lasting (although heterogenous) actor relate to the emergence of a digital environment characterized by information abundance. These different phenomena intersect in Brazil in a unique way.
Presenters
Gabriel S HulandTeaching Fellow, Centre for the Global Media and Communications, SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Democratic Disorder: Disinformation, the Media and Crisis in a Time of Change
KEYWORDS
Misinformation, Brazil, Fake News, Far-right
