POWER AND PHOTOGRAPHY: SIGNS OF INFORMATION IN PUBLIC AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

This research aims to understand how photography is constituted as a sign of information on the Instagram account of the Federal Government of Brazil. To achieve this, we will conduct a study of discursivity at a non-verbal level, analyzing a set of 15 photographs published on this social network during the week of March 30, 2024, in carousel format. Considering the role of language in society and of discourse in the organization of reality, this general objective unfolds into other specific objectives, selected according to the Principle of Pertinence (Barthes, 2001). Among them is the reflection on the relationships between information and power, as well as between public communication, oriented toward citizenship, and political communication, oriented toward ideological propaganda. Anchored in Barthesian semiology, the following analytical categories were adopted: discourse (sub-category: photography) and power according to Barthes (1978), information according to Capurro (2007), and the reflection by Brandão (2009) on public and political communication. Finally, we observe that the fabric of discourse indicates the subjection of the signs of information to the meanings of Lula’s Power, converting public communication into political communication.