De-Westernizing Media Parallelism: How Editorial Interests Unfold During Impeachment Crises

Abstract

The article examines how O Globo (OG) – a newspaper affiliated to the most important Brazilian media conglomerate – addressed the impeachment processes of former presidents Fernando Collor (1992) and Dilma Rousseff (2016) through its editorials. The investigation aims to identify which arguments OG used to hold its editorial positions and compare possible differences in its stances concerning both crises. By applying content analysis to 191 editorials, our study focuses on (1) the reasons for and against the impeachments processes the texts defended; (2) the political solutions they proposed; and (3) the consequences OG forecasted after the impeachments. The results indicate a lack of interest in covering the 1992 crisis, when OG resisted endorsing Collor’s deposition. However, the newspaper played an active role throughout Rousseff's impeachment, mobilizing an increasing volume of editorials and using economic arguments to legitimize the then-president removal. The article reveals the tensions arising between parallelism and instrumentalization in peripheral media systems. Plus, we propose three media parallelism dimensions (single-occasion parallelism, agenda parallelism, and coalition parallelism) to complement the concept traditionally used in Political Communication scholarship.