Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

Trajectories of coronavirus and interpenetrations of social discourses 209 with the theme of the virus, and with an eye on the old and new media, with which his Twitter was in permanent contact. Circling on the networks, the president’s goal was, however, not to lose contact with the streets, something that seemed impossible, given the possible effects of the contain- ment discourse enunciated by the health instances. But it was not only in the street space that the president chose, along with the networks, possibilities of moments to combat the medical- sanitary discourse and others issued by different institutions. An area reserved for journalists and followers was created at the entrance of the presidential palace. The latter sought time to applaud and greet the president. And, in the case of journal- ists, with whom they maintained aggressive relations, to capture some statement fromhim, according to the surveillance imposed by the security guards. 4.1. Combat escalation In the context of the virus advance, the president built the combat escalation, addressing various themes, according to the enunciative strategies described next. In the first days of the virus circulation, the president announced a position of denial about the virus and opposed to the construction of the medical-sanitary appeal. In front of journalists, he claimed he could not explain it (although doing it) as he wished, fearing the effects of reading of the media: “The Corona issue is not all that the media propagates [...]” (FSP, 10/03 / 2020); “The power was given to this virus, which if I say it is oversized, will make head- lines in this garbage called Folha de S. Paulo, among newspapers that are waiting for the wrong word to attack the government. It is not attacking the government. It is attacking Brazil” (FSP, 15/03/2020). He directed attacks on the health field, according to a comment in which he disqualified, with the use of irony, the person of WHO’s Secretary-General: “People talk so much about following WHO [...] WHO’s president director is not a doctor, it is the same thing that talking here in Brazil {that the president of Caixa is not someone from the economy} to the television me- dia, which like printed newspapers, such as the FSP, are explicit and disqualifying” (BBC Brasil, 23/04/2020). His assessments