Prática discursiva de desinformação: um estudo crítico sobre anúncios digitais falsos

Abstract

This research aims to investigate disinformation discursive practice in false digital advertisements, considering the production, distribution, and consumption of texts in social media. For that purpose, this research is based on Critical Discourse Analysis studies concerning the dialectical-relational approach (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001) and on disinformation studies (WARDLE; DERAKHSHAN, 2017). This qualitative study uses discourse analysis as a method from the perspective of the Textually Oriented Discourse Analysis (TODA) developed by Fairlcough (2001). Furthermore, the study also adopted a critical interpretive paradigm through empirical data via document research. Data were reunited in 3 corpora to answer our research questions. The first corpus is formed by 4 false digital advertisements according to the verification of source check projects; the second one is composed of utterances of a producer (scammer) and a consumer (victim) retrieved from a video platform page, as well as 12 comments from that page; the third one is constituted of 14 comments of a news story that offered relevant aspects about production, distribution, and consumption of discursive practice. Results from the data analysis suggest that, concerning the production, social actors use dissimulation strategies to deceive users through the imitation of characteristics commonly seen in authentic publicity advertisements; the lexical choices that produce the idea of ease/quickness which creates a sense of urgency, as well as the lexical choices that aim to legitimate the assumed truthfulness of false digital advertisements, among others. Concerning the distribution, it was possible to suggest a systematic frame of distribution/contribution made by some social actors through elements that sometimes continue the text and sometimes discontinue it. Finally, regarding consumption, results showed the presence of social effects that promote other (false) texts through a dynamic (re)production. The conclusion states that disinformation discursive practice in false digital advertisements is a dangerous social problem that requires a greater comprehension of interactions between individuals, media, and society in general, as well as a greater transformational engagement that interferes with this practice dissemination.