The protagonism of the Center

Twitter is the network in which representatives from center parties reached the most protagonism during the past week in the debate about Covid-19.

Although representatives from right-wing parties have more “digital capital”, they tend to be restricted to their group of supporters, while representatives from the center and even the left wing reach a larger public in the debate about the pandemic.

In the center group, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, is the representative with the most impact over the 7 days analyzed.

Digital capital – Twitter

analysis date: from March 10 at midnight until March 17 at midnight

Dominance of the right wing group

In turn, YouTube is the network in which representatives from right-wing parties dominate more clearly the public debate about the Covid-19, with clear protagonism of representatives from the PSL.

In the group of center parties, deputy Kim Kataguiri (DEM-SP) shows the best performance, followed by another DEM representative and a PSD representative. The other representatives do not have a significant impact.

In the left-wing group, deputies Gleisi and Jandira, as well as Paulo Pimenta, are the representatives with the best performance.

Digital capital – YouTube

analysis date: from March 10 at midnight until March 17 at midnight

PSL deputies have more engagement

On Facebook, deputies from right-wing parties, especially those from the PSL, also show higher engagement, in general, compared to the others, particularly Carla Zambelli, Bia Kicis and Eduardo Bolsonaro.

Among the representatives from parties located in the center groups, Sergeant Fahur stands out, followed by Alvaro Dias, Chief of Police Eder Mauro, Kim Kataguiri and Rodrigo Maia.

Digital capital – Facebook

analysis date: from March 10 at midnight until March 17 at midnight

Methodological Note

We considered two analytical dimensions in order to establish the position of the parties in the ideological spectrum. We assigned a value from 0 to 10 to categorize their positions on issues regarding the economic perspective — from more interventionist to more liberal; positions regarding sensitive topics were also evaluated, within the scope of the values, characterizing the progressive – conservative dimension. 

The classification was elaborated based on the articulation, voting and parliamentary performance of the representatives. We observed the formation of blocks from the current legislature, specifically related to some votes during the Bolsonaro administration, in order to assess the extent to which there is support for the government agenda by the representatives.