Pedagogy of threat: an analysis of communicative patterns of socialization in Jair Bolsonaro’s WhatsApp support groups

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze aspects of socialization in WhatsApp public groups that support brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The focus is on the recurrent communicative patterns in this space. Considering textual and visual messages, animations, memes and videos published in pro-Bolsonaro digital communities, we point to the existence of a “pedagogy of threat”, with centralized communicative flow, absence of debates and no space for contradictory opinions. The content analysis indicates intense circulation of messages based on three main communicative strategies: 2- friend-enemy binomial; 2- appeal to emotion; 3- misinformation strategies. It is argued that the virtual platform on screen is configured as an ideological medium in the sense proposed by Thompson (1995), that of meaning in the service of power. By emulating a state of constant threat, the Bolsonarist WhatsApp aims to gather, alert and summon militancy to defend the president in the face of dangers and intimidation.