De jornalismo alternativo não tem nada: uma análise do portal O Antagonista (2015-2018)

Abstract

Between 2013 and 2018, Brazil’s democratic structures faced a period of upheaval, leading to the rise of a political leader to the presidency whose inclinations ran counter to democratic principles. In this context, there was a proliferation of alternative media outlets on the internet from both ideological spectrums, fostering the emergence of hyper-partisan journalism. Given this scenario, it is relevant to question to what extent the development of this alternative journalism aligned with the conservative agenda and, consequently, whether this form of journalism can genuinely be considered alternative. To investigate this relationship, this research analyzes the digital newspaper O Antagonista, one of the leading exponents of this post-2013 media expansion movement, which gained significant audience engagement on digital platforms. Data from the “Brasil” section of the newspaper’s official website were collected through Web Scraping and analyzed using the statistical software IRaMuTeQ, employing a research approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative elements. The results indicate that the outlet reinforced the liberal-conservative bias of the mainstream press, distancing it from the historical concept of alternative journalism. In the Brazilian sociopolitical context, we identify that O Antagonista actively contributed to the dissemination of anti-PT and pro-Lava Jato narratives (2015-2017), ultimately supporting Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacy in 2018.