The Role of Social Network Platforms for Discursive Legitimation: Unveiling Neoliberalism Behind the Discourse on Public Universities

Abstract

This article investigates the discursive dispute for the (de)legitimation of public universities in Brazil and demonstrates how the interactions on social network platforms privilege discursive strategies that shift the debate from technical to identarian argumentative topos. Using the sociocognitive approach by Teun van Dijk, our analysis focuses on meanings that reside in the sociopolitical context of the message and constitute the context model manipulated by the information architecture of social media platforms. Understanding this dynamic was important to reveal how the commodification of education and disinvestment in higher education (HE) were and continue to be legitimatized, and also to explain why managerial attempts of public organizations to gain legitimacy through engagement and participation on social media have achieved modest results despite the growing importance of social media for legitimation.