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Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil
Dissertation (MA (Political Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2022.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Pretoria
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613456323051520 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Thuynsma, Heather Anne |
| author_browse | Thuynsma, Heather Anne |
| author_facet | Thuynsma, Heather Anne |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (MA (Political Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2022. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/89333 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:36:26.058Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/89333 Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil Thuynsma, Heather Anne tyeshapillay12@gmail.com Pillay, Tyesha UCTD Political psychology Emotions Bolsonaro Brazil Evangelicals Dissertation (MA (Political Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2022. On the 28 October 2018, Brazilians elected right-wing populist Jair Messias Bolsonaro as the 38th President of Brazil. Bolsonaro defeated his opponent Fernando Haddad from the PT, by a significant margin of 55,13% as against 43,87% (Araujuo & Prior 2020). Even against the backdrop of surging support for right-wing candidates and parties, the election of Bolsonaro still surprised observers and academics. Bolsonaro’s success, as Leticia Cesarino (2019) and Stuart Davis and Joe Straubhaar (2020) found, was due to his campaign’s communication strategy on social media. At the heart of these strategies is the use of emotive messaging on WhatsApp, which micro-targeted Evangelicals through the use of fake news, particularly disinformation, and populist communication derived from crises occurring in Brazil leading up to the 2018 election. Grounded in these arguments, this dissertation studies the effects of fear, anger and enthusiasm/hope in communication shared by the Bolsonaro campaign on WhatsApp. In doing so, the study applies a two-step analysis method. Firstly, the 12 sample WhatsApp messages were analysed using a latent content analysis to identify and explore the topics addressed in these messages. Secondly, these messages were then subjected to an emotional sentiment analysis to measure their emotive elements using the Linguistic-Inquiry and Word Count software. Guided by the Theory of Affective Intelligence, this dissertation found that anger and enthusiasm are evoked by WhatsApp messaging based on political habits, while fear is evoked by messaging grounded in an unknown threat. Moreover, anger and enthusiasm are found to decrease information-seeking, while fear encourages individuals to seek alternative information. The Bolsonaro WhatsApp network acted as both an echo-chamber for individuals experiencing anger/enthusiasm, and an alternative source of information for individuals experiencing fear. This dissertation shows how the Bolsonaro campaign used emotive strategic communication on WhatsApp to appeal to Evangelical Christians, specifically their desire for social recognition. Political Sciences MA (Political Sciences) Unrestricted 2023-02-08T09:31:27Z 2023-02-08T09:31:27Z 2023-04-01 2022 Dissertation * A2023 https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/89333 en © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Political psychology Emotions Bolsonaro Brazil Evangelicals Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title | Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title_full | Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title_fullStr | Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title_full_unstemmed | Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title_short | Politics of the heart and mind : using WhatsApp to drive support amongst evangelicals in Brazil |
| title_sort | politics of the heart and mind using whatsapp to drive support amongst evangelicals in brazil |
| topic | UCTD Political psychology Emotions Bolsonaro Brazil Evangelicals |
| url | https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/89333 |