A repercussão do processo eleitoral ao cargo de presidente da república do Brasil no Twitter: uma análise sob à luz da polarização afetiva.

Abstract

Affective polarization occurs when there is an increase in disaffection between rival political groups. In this sense, research on the 2022 Brazilian electoral process already indicated that the dispute for the position of President of the Republic would be significantly polarized between the two candidates Lula (PT) and Bolsonaro (PL) since the beginning of the period. Given this, this research has the following research question: how does the behavior of Twitter users reflect the political reality with regard to affective polarization in the elections for the position of President of the Republic of Brazil in 2022? To this end, it analyzes the impact of hearings and electoral debates of candidates for the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil on Twitter interactions during the 2022 electoral period. To achieve the answer, the methodological path allowed the creation of a database collected in electoral surveys , audience points and Twitter on the days of hearings and debates between candidates with the purpose of measuring users' exposure in relation to ternary type feelings between tweets containing the hashtags of Trending Topics Brazil (TTBr), Longest Topics Brazil (LTBr ) and Most Tweeted Brasil (MTBr). The aim is to measure affective polarization in order to highlight the phenomenon observed based on what the Political Science literature proposed. Thus, the analysis exposes the reconfiguration of electoral disputes within virtual platforms that have modified both the way cybercitizens participate and behave in democratic regimes and the way candidates seek to influence the online debate in order to ensure their success at the polls. The analysis seeks to identify how digital media have brought about changes in the dissemination of beliefs about the functioning of the political system and the performance of democracy, enabling the rise of a new right, the move to the center of the left, and the polar potential in the formation of digital bubbles, in order to visualize not only the rationality of voters, but also how emotions are instrumentalized in electoral competition. From this, it was possible to identify the qualitative profile of the majority voters comprising each bubble, as well as visualize the affective polarization and behavior of user-voters in the delimited events, successfully responding to the first hypothesis raised. However, it was not possible to carry out a more precise analysis of the ideological distribution of individuals, as pointed out in the literature, which states that the phenomenon would be distributed asymmetrically, due to prospecting from just one digital platform.