ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the interplay between politics, media, and religion in the Brazilian context in the past few years, encompassing the period from the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016 to the election of Bolsonaro in 2018. The main goal is to observe how the relationship between political and religious movements favored the increasing importance of neoconservative discourses in the country. It is argued that the way in which the political and religious dynamics are mediatized is a central issue to understand this discursive phenomenon. The chapter is based on approaches in communication studies focusing on the intersection of media and religion and also of media and politics. While the evangelical conservatism can be characterized by its reaction to the progressive movements coming from gender debates, feminist questions, and reproductive rights, media conservatism becomes visible in the way the mainstream news rejects topics related to social movements and reacts to the granting of rights to the underprivileged classes. In this sense, evangelical and mainstream media go hand in hand to create a new conservative discourse in Brazil.