A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL ACTORS IN MULTIMODAL TEXTS ABOUT CIVILIAN ARMAMENT IN BRAZIL

Resumo

Understanding language as a social action, Critical Discourse Analysis aims at highlighting linguistic-discursive practices interconnected with the sociopolitical structures that support them. Following this assumption, Van Leeuwen develops (1996; 2008) the theory of representations of social actors intending to unveil the ideological foundations of discourse, as well as the relations between objects and subjects in interaction. Since the press has the power to create and maintain ideological constructions that help sustain certain power relations, it is necessary to investigate which and how participants are included and excluded, given the sociocultural context in which the discourse happens. Therefore, this article proposes a multimodal comparative analysis of the representations of the social actors in two reports on the same theme: license for the acquisition and possession of firearms.