“Brazil is on our side”

an analysis of the perception of Brazilians about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in digital media

Abstract

Observing the latest clashes that took place in the Middle East, which brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back to the media, this article aims to analyze Brazilians' perception of such events. Given the insertion of individuals in a hyperconnected world, what should be called a network society, this study seeks to identify, through social networks, the formation of networks of indignation among Brazilians and possible political-ideological positions regarding the conflict in question, Furthermore, the reach and relevance of digital media in reporting such events is analyzed. This is a qualitative investigation, which uses the content analysis technique to investigate a sample containing 32,660 comments made on posts from three major Brazilian news outlets, included on the Instagram social network. Among the results, it was possible to identify the formation of well-defined networks of indignation among Brazilians, both in defense of Israelis and Palestinians, it was also observed that such networks are quite aligned with the political-ideological spectrums that marked the last elections. Finally, it was possible to notice that, when searching for information, Brazilians access more “alternative” media outlets than professional journalism outlets.