Opinião pública, mídia e legitimidade no governo Michel Temer: uma análise histórica do período pós-impeachment

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship between media, public opinion, and political legitimacy during the Michel Temer administration (2016–2018), a period characterized by the tension between formal legality and social recognition. Drawing on the content analysis framework proposed by Bardin (2016) and Charaudeau's (2010) theory of media discourse, the study examines how major Brazilian news outlets contributed to sustaining the government despite historically low approval ratings recorded by the Datafolha Institute. The work demonstrates that the media operated an alternative form of legitimation, framing labor and pension reforms as technically inevitable, thereby shifting debate from the democratic sphere to the realm of economic rationality. The federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro (2018) is analyzed as a political-discursive phenomenon that articulated social fear, demand for order, and the government's need to reconstruct symbolic authority. The theoretical framework draws on Max Weber's concept of legitimate domination, Jürgen Habermas's notion of the public sphere, and Pierre Bourdieu's critique of public opinion. The study concludes that the Brazilian post-impeachment crisis was fundamentally a crisis of representation and democratic mediation, whose symbolic mechanisms persisted beyond the end of the Temer administration.