Retrato de um presidente em guerra nos títulos dos jornais

Abstract

References to war in the media dominated the last year, not only to detail military advances and retreats, but also to show the role of the various actors. In 2022, war broke out in Europe and, during this period, one figure in particular gained prominence: we are talking about the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
The press in general has real power in its hands, since it decides what is relevant, what is new, what should be reported (Charaudeau, 2013). It also has the ability to populate the imagination of readers with some political figures through what is said and the way of saying it. The distribution of information can condition the reader’s interpretation, since, as Ducrot (2001) mentioned, a statement includes more than a mere description of the situation.
Considering the role of the press in the construction of social representations, this article proposes to analyze the linguistic materiality of news headlines published in three Portuguese newspapers, collected between February and September 2022, to observe how Zelensky is portrayed. The choice of titles is due to their communicative function, since, as the reader’s first (and sometimes the only) contact with the news, it constitutes a summary (van Dijk, 1985) of current events.
In this work, the thematic elements (THEME and RHEME) are identified and the lexical items present in RHEME that contribute to the construction of an image of Zelensky are analyzed. The data reveal that the reference to Zelenksy appears, mostly, in the THEME position, which seems natural taking into account his importance in the conflict and his constant presence in the news. About this, several new data (RHEME) are presented that enhance the creation of different images, namely honesty, authority or criticism.