The media and the criminalization of social movements for land rights: “criminalization and structure of power”

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the criminalization of the social movements for land rights through mediatic discourses published in three online newspapers with greater circulation in Rondônia, a State in northern Brazil. The investigative choice relied on the Liga Camponesa dos Pobres, or LCP (Poor Peasants League), and the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement) due to the political representation and historical performance achieved by these movements in the State. For the studies, we categorized the most recurrent speeches about them: being terrorists, vandals and cangaceiros, to interdisciplinarly analyze them, in the light of Communication and Semiotics, and the Right to Land.  The methodology with a qualitative approach was characterized based on the theoretical-bibliographic references, of a documentary and iconographic nature in said newspapers. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that the conflicts in the countryside in Rondônia and the growing number of homicides of militant farmers of the LCP and the MST are related to the criminalization exposed in the media.