Hélder Prior, assistant professor at the Autonomous Department of Communication, gave a lecture on October 1 to students in the Journalism and Publicity and Propaganda courses at the Dom Bosco Catholic University (UCDB), in Brazil.
The lecture had as its main theme “Media and populism in the 2018 elections”. Hélder presented studies that show the influence of social networks and alternative channels during electoral campaigns, in addition to citing these communication vehicles as a channel used by populist politicians to spread ideological messages without any intermediation.
According to Professor Dr. Oswaldo Ribeiro, one of the organizers of the event, researches such as that of Hélder help the academic community to understand the complexity surrounding questions about populism. “We are living through a very complex political moment in Brazil and the media plays an important role in the context, so knowing the theme and the reflections around it helps in the process of training future media agents”, commented the professor.
In addition to discussing the topic, the speaker presented the Pe. Félix Zavattaro with a copy of the book “Deconstructing a fall: the media and the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff”. The work was organized by Hélder together with journalists Liziane Guazina and Bruno Araújo, and addresses the removal of Dilma Rousseff from the Presidency of the Republic in 2016.