Political discourses, ideologies, and online coalitions in the Brazilian Congress on Twitter during 2019

• Published in: New media & society Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 1130 - 1152
• Main Authors: García-Sánchez, Efraín, Benetti, Pedro Rolo, Higa, Gustavo Lucas, Alvarez, Marcos César, Gomez-Nieto, Erick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-05-2023
• Subjects: Brazil; Twitter; polarization; political ideology; political discourse; social network analysis
• ISSN: 1461-4448; 1461-7315
• DOI: 10.1177/14614448211017920

The aim of this research is to describe the pattern of interactions of Brazilian legislators on Twitter during 2019 in the construction of political discourses. Based on 20,076 replies during 2019, posted on Twitter by 514 Brazilian legislators, we conducted descriptive analysis of legislators’ Twitter profiles, social network analyses from their interactions, and content analysis of the messages. We found that (1) there are large disparities between legislators in the use of Twitter; (2) the pattern of interactions depicted five clusters defined by political affinities; (3) each cluster had different features regarding their composition and impact; (4) the centrality of the legislators within the network was positively associated with public endorsement on Twitter; and (5) the topics of messages within the clusters reinforce discourses aligned to political ideologies. We argue that the pattern of interactions on Twitter allows to identify online coalitions that reinforce particular discourses within the Brazilian parliament.