Funcionamento discursivo e efeitos de sentido para o autismo em enunciados da mídia

Abstract

The discussion on autism has become an increasingly frequent topic in Brazilian society, addressed even in the media across its various platforms, such as television programs, series, films, documentaries, and also in print media, such as newspapers and magazines. In this context, it is noteworthy to highlight the magazines Época and Superinteressante, which regularly cover the subject in their issues. In this research, we propose to analyze the statements about autism published in issue no. 473 of Época and issue no. 410 of Superinteressante, in order to understand how media discourse is organized in the construction of knowledge and the production of meanings regarding autism. In this work, we start from the assumption that these magazines — which are part of what we can call the media — function not only as discursive spaces for the production and democratization of information but also as enunciative instances that, through various discursive strategies, guide, organize, and regulate discourse, influencing how the public should interpret it. Thus, we seek to examine how these platforms structure statements about autism in the aforementioned issues and what effects of meaning they produce for this neurological condition and for autistic subjects. In this research, we ground ourselves in the theoretical and methodological postulates of French-line Discourse Analysis, drawing on the contributions of Charaudeau (2006; 2016), Foucault (1996; 2008; 2013; 2014), and Pêcheux (1995; 1997; 2008), to analyze and interpret the statements on autism disseminated in the issues of the magazines Época and Superinteressante. Methodologically, this research is characterized as bibliographical and documentary, based on the analytical and interpretive reading of the statements about/for autism present in the selected issues. As a result, we found that the statements in Época on autism are predominantly inserted into the order of specialized discourse, articulated with a medical-scientific discursive formation, which produces pathologizing effects and limits other possible interpretations of autism. In this process, a regime of discursive control is observed that privileges the voice of specialized knowledge to the detriment of others, such as that of the autistic subject themselves, which is silenced or only partially represented in the magazine’s discursive space. Superinteressante also relies on specialized knowledge as the foundation of its approaches but acknowledges other voices (such as those of autistic individuals and their families) in the process of interpreting autism. This articulation of different voices to speak about and interpret autism within Superinteressante’s discursive space enables the construction of a narrative that transcends its clinical and pathological description, thus promoting a broader and more plural understanding of the phenomenon and producing effects of plurality and singularity within the spectrum.