Storytelling as a Discourse Tool in Twitter: An Analysis of a Bolsonaro’s Presidential Campaign in 2018

Abstract

Considering the advances of social media platforms in the last elections in Brazil, this research analyzed storytelling as a tool of approximation of the relations between a po-
litical candidate and his potential voters in the digital context. The interest was, specifically, to observe the speeches in the tweets of Jair Bolsonaro, between September 11 and October 27 of the 2018 — electoral period— to identify the myths and communication strategies used by the candidate. This way, it was possible to conclude that Bolsonaro developed, at least, nine strategies considering storytelling: the hero to be combated; the formulation of enemies; the coherence in the development of his story; the stories backward; the only possible hero; the captain’s metaphor against violence; the transmedia discourse; the sophisticated stimuli and the symbolism of green and yellow.