Do confronto à conciliação : debates presidenciais na TV como eventos persuasivos

• Autor(a) principal: Vasconcellos, Fábio Souza
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UERJ
• Texto Completo: http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/12412
• topic: Elections; Campaigns; Debates; Television; Electoral Behavior; Eleições; Campanha; Debates; Televisão; Comportamento Eleitoral; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::CIENCIA POLITICA

This study analyzes presidential debates broadcasted on television as persuasive events in political campaigns in Brazil. The main goal is to contribute not only to the understanding of the role of this kind of source of political information in the Brazilian context, but also to discuss its possible effects in a more systematic fashion. Debates on television are a short-term communicational variable in electoral processes. They offer communicational stimuli that are disseminated in the campaign environment, either by viewers or by those who receive information concerning these events and the performance of candidates through other media sources, such as the press and electoral programs that free-toair television networks must broadcast according to Brazilian electoral law (the so-called Horário da Propaganda Eleitoral Gratuita HPGE). Since information alone is not enough to explain shifts in opinion, the study focuses on two main axes. The first one is the identification and mapping out of the persuasive strategies adopted by candidates to the extent that in live television debates they are prompted to confront, in a live broadcast, their adversaries allowing voters to evaluate not only their stance regarding political issues but also how they present themselves. In this case, an impact was detected on voter attitude towards competitors. The main results show a pattern in the objective of messages. Considering aggregate results, among candidates in the opposition attacks prevail, whereas among incumbent candidates laudatory messages are the norm. The position of the candidate, as well as the political content of the messages presented significant results in terms of a possible effect on voter attitude. The study further proposes an analysis of the frames adopted by competitors with the aim to establish a reference for the audience. This variable which seeks to take into consideration aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication also had significant results in terms of the impact on voter attitude. With regard to the second analytical axis, the aggregate effects of these campaign events were considered. The study investigated the 2002 presidential debates, when the general opinion mood favored the opposition, and the 2010 debates, when mood was favorable to the incumbent. With regard to the impact of the debates on the informational environment, the data suggests that in 2002 the performance of opposition candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers Party PT) led to greater positive journalistic coverage whereas José Serra (the candidates of the Brazilian Social-Democratic Party PSDB) received less positive coverage. In 2010, there was more equilibrium in the post-debate press coverage of the debate between the candidate of the incumbent party, Dilma Rousseff, (PT) and of the opposition, José Serra (PSDB). The impact on the informational environment of the campaign was followed by an aggregate increase in voter intention for candidates leading polls and who represented change in 2002, in the case of Lula, or continuity in 2010, in the case of Dilma. Therefore in both elections, there is evidence that television debates in Brazil are important persuasive events. Even though they have a less central role as a source of electoral information and do not lead to position changes in poll, these events contributed, at least indirectly, to the consolidation and expansion of voter preference for those in the lead based on the positive perception of performance in debates.