DO NOT FEED THE MINION! Affective polarization and backward network activism in the genesis and rise of the hashtag # Bolsonaro2018 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff

Authors

  • Marcelo Santos Universidad Finis Terrae

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22409/conflu.v22i3.47121

Abstract

This article inquires over the rise of #Bolsonaro2018’s visibility on Twitter under odd circumstances, as we set out to identify which factors and understand which processes lead to such visibility. Supported by sequential mixed-methods, using mostly Social Media Analytics (SMA) and Content Analysis, two different moments are highlighted: (i) automated or semi-automated promotion of the hashtag and (ii) a meteoric rise on its mentions triggered by the Bolsonaro’s very detractors, who accounted for almost 90% of the analyzed sample. I suggest that the key to understand the process lies on affective polarization, that leads opposers to make their aversion to the politician explicit. As a result, #Bolsonaro2018 winded up as a national and then a world-wide Twitter Trending Topic.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Published

2020-12-02

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (2020): DOSSIÊ: "Mídia, Polarização Política e Crise da Democracia"

Section

Dossiê

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Marcelo Santos

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

The authors hold the copyright, with first publication rights granted to the journal, being the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which allows the work to be shared with acknowledgement of authorship and first publication in this journal. 
The authors have authorization to separately purchase additional contracts of non-exclusive distribution of the work's version published in this journal (e.g.:publication in institutional repositories or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and first publication in this journal. 
The authors have permission and are encouraged to publish and disseminate their work online (e.g.:in institutional repositories or on their personal page), at any point - either before or during the editorial process, since it may generate productive changes, as well as increase the impact and citation of the published work.

How to Cite

DO NOT FEED THE MINION! Affective polarization and backward network activism in the genesis and rise of the hashtag # Bolsonaro2018 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. Confluências | Interdisciplinary Review of Sociology and Law, [S. l.], v. 22, n. 3, p. 172–197, 2020. DOI: 10.22409/conflu.v22i3.47121. Disponível em: https://periodicos.uff.br/confluencias/article/view/47121. Acesso em: 6 dec. 2025.