A construção da imagem internacional do Brasil: enquadramentos midiáticos sobre os eventos de 8 de janeiro de 2023

Abstract

The present research falls within the field of International Relations, with an emphasis on media diplomacy studies, a term coined by Gilboa (1987; 2002) to designate strategies that take advantage of the new media resources of the Information Age for diplomacy. Social networks constitute the means of communication used by world leaders to express their opinions and decision-making. The use of X/Twitter has become common among candidates in electoral processes and has become popular among elected heads of state, among them former president Jair Bolsonaro, who extensively used this form of communication with his followers. This work investigates the discursive framings adopted by the international press in the coverage of the invasion of Brazil’s Three Branches of Government on January 8, 2023, with the aim of understanding how such narrative constructions were articulated in the representation of the country’s symbolic image as a Democratic Rule-of-Law State before the international community. Based on framing theory and on the concepts of public diplomacy, media diplomacy, and soft power, the study conducts a comparative qualitative analysis of articles published by ten international media outlets, selected based on their geopolitical and informational relevance. Data collection and organization were optimized through computational techniques in Python and NVivo 15 software, while content analysis followed the theoretical frameworks of Goffman (1974) and Entman (1993). The results reveal that Brazil’s image was predominantly constructed through a critical narrative, which associates the acts with illegitimate attacks against democracy and its institutions.