ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces discourse paradigm in the tradition of multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. Developed by J. R. Martin, this is the interpersonal system of evaluation, known as Appraisal. Appraisal has been applied to media images and journalistic discourse analysis and can be seen as an important expansion of Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s interpersonal image analysis framework and modality. The chapter examines one such example of political engagement, a Facebook campaign launched by young people in Rio de Janeiro in protest against police violence and its coverage in a Rio newspaper. Online media activism is used mainly by younger citizens as a democratizing force for social change through participatory media. The chapter shows that 'favela online media activism' can be an important platform for denouncing human rights abuses, particularly when taken up by mainstream media, but it also points to its limited potential to mobilize change in Brazil, a society with rampant social and racial inequality.
