Fear, fake news and political (de)legitimization: the case of Marielle Franco

o caso de Marielle Franco

Abstract

This paper analyzes fake news generated shortly after the murder of Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in 2018. From the analysis of newspaper headlines and fake news themselves, we observed that the attempt to deconstruct the city council's image was based on a narrative of fear and that opposed his figure as a representative of minorities and a militant against police abuses in Rio de Janeiro. Discursive strategies and aesthetic options helped to deconstruct and minimize the consequences of the double murder, in a period of political tension and police violence in the state. Behind these discourses, we observe the articulation around moral values ​​that are intertwined in the current Brazilian politics, which create illusions of belonging at the same time that they are exclusionary and prejudiced.