From joy to rebellion: the rhetoric of the media to elicit emotions in Brazilians through stereotypes

Abstract

This article aims to examine evidence of how the media has contributed to deconstruct the stereotype of the happy Brazilian, now angrier and reactive, as a rhetorical tool to hold sway over the mood of the masses. From the analysis of national and international news stories, we seek to raise hypotheses about the construction of the emotional environment that permeated the political and ideological discussions about the corruption scandals that culminated in the impeachment proceedings of President Dilma Rousseff. For this brief analysis, we used some theoretical bases originated from cognitive psychology, systems thinking and neurolinguistic, in order to promote an interdisciplinary study of the sciences of the mind, body and communication.