Comunicação e política no Maranhão: as políticas de comunicação do governo Flávio Dino

Abstract

This research has as general objective to find out what are the investments, communication strategies and how the Secretaria Estadual de Comunicação Social e Assuntos Políticos (SECAP) of Maranhão works to achieve visibility in the media. Thus, the research question delineates in what are the strategies that the SECAP of the Flávio Dino government uses to achieve media visibility, since the largest communication system in the state is owned by the opposition? The answer to the problem was sought from three specific objectives: i) verify which strategies the government of Maranhão uses to insert its guidelines in the traditional state press, since it is opposed to the Sarney’s family, owner of the main television station in Maranhão, TV Mirante; ii) understand the investments in radio broadcasting from the reformulation of Rádio Timbira AM, used as the first communication alternative of this mandate; iii) analyze the use, techniques and importance of the internet, especially social networks, for government communication. Eight servants who occupy positions of leadership and coordination in the Secretariat were interviewed and, after a qualitative analysis of the interviews, it was noted that SECAP's communication policies are developed under a discourse of democratization of information, which also function as disarticulators of communicational power of the Mirante System. In addition, more than media strategies, the measures deal with political narratives and disputes that hinder the social role that communication in public bodies must assume.