THE ATTACK OF JANUARY 8 ON THE EDITORIALS OF BRAZILIAN NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

This paper analyzes and compares the positioning of the mainstream newspapers Folha de São Paulo, O Globo, and Estado de São Paulo regarding the attacks on January 8, 2023, by individuals who occupied and vandalized the Praça dos Três Poderes. Nothing similar to the scenes of barbarism and vandalism at the institutions' headquarters in Brasília had been seen throughout the country's republican history, a fact that justifies such analysis. Our goal was to verify: (1) perceptions about the encampments and protests, (2) initial narratives about the January 8 attacks, (3) changes in stance and terminology used regarding the individuals who committed the act, in addition to (4) the reconstruction of narratives as the days passed and the criminalization of the invasions. The corpus consists of all editorial texts on the subject published from January 1st to January 18th. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how the traditional media covered an event of extreme relevance to the Brazilian political and social landscape. The methodologies used were thematic analysis and framing analysis. We could observe that there were no concerns from the newspapers about the antidemocratic demonstrations and Bolsonaro supporters' encampments before the attacks, but after the attacks, there is a concern for the punishment of those responsible. We also noticed that Folha de S. Paulo was the only newspaper that did not link the attackers to Jair Bolsonaro.