The ethos of the volunteer hero and stereotypes about Africa in humanitarian discourse

• Autor(a) principal: Bitencourt, Daiane Rodrigues de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: letrônica
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/letronica/article/view/39842
• topic: Discourse Analysis; Ethos; Stereotype; Validated scene; Humanitarian discourse; Análise do Discurso; Ethos; Estereótipo; Cena validada; Discurso humanitário

This article analyzes the video “How to get more likes on Social Media” in order to describe the construction of the ethos of the volunteer as a hero and the stereotypes about Africa presented in the video. The analysis is based on the notions of ethos, scene validated (MAINGUENEAU, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2020), and stereotypes (ALLPORT, 1979; AMOSSY; PIERROT, 2001; GATTI, 2014; BURKE, 2017). The video was produced by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH), a politically independent international humanitarian agency that promotes access to education in different countries. The agency criticizes the simplified, reductive, and often pejorative way in which Western media, humanitarian organizations, and academic discourses disseminate information about Africa. Against these simplifications, the agency carries out campaigns that problematize these stereotypes, as the video analyzed. The results show that the campaign establishes two images: an ethos of a good and well-meaning hero versus stereotypes of Africans as passive, poor, and sick.