Memes políticos e a formação da agenda governamental de Paracuru (2018-2023)

Abstract

The internet and its tools have become more present in the daily lives of Brazilians. New forms of communication are gradually taking up more and more space, reaching more and more people. Society is becoming increasingly mediatized, and political debate and disputes over setting the political agenda are not left out of this process of mediatization. Political humor, already quite common in Brazilian political debate, is now taking the form of memes produced and shared en masse by social media users. This study was conducted with the aim of understanding the relationship between political memes and the formation of the government agenda in the city of Paracuru, in the context of relations between government and society, during the period from 2018 to 2023. Political memes appear in the context of the increasing use of information technology tools to produce collective actions, or digital activism. Thus, an analysis of the formal government agenda of Paracuru was carried out, comparing it with the media agenda of the memes produced by the Paracuru Ordinária page on Instagram. Topics related to Infrastructure and Urbanism were the most discussed in both the memes and the legislative matters analyzed. Health was also one of the topics that stood out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Work, income generation, and culture were prominent in the political memes on the page analyzed, but they were less frequently mentioned by the authorities. It was possible to conclude that the topics of the formal agenda are related to the political memes based on how public problems present themselves in the local scenario. The topics addressed in each group only converge when events or situations occur that affect both groups. It is concluded that the flow of problems and the political environment are more influential in shaping the agenda than the topics discussed in other groups.