“EU SOU A UNIVERSAL”: A Reprodução da Masculinidade Hegemônica no Imaginário Midiático

Resumo (EN)

This thesis proposes the study of hegemonic masculinity. The research takes place in the Communication field and the objective is to identify and analyze the discursive presence of hegemonic masculinity in religion, in particular in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God whose media empire is one of the greatest "cases" of Communication and Religious Marketing in Brazil. The problem that drives the investigation is: what meanings about masculinity are produced and vascularized by the media in IURD advertising campaigns? The corpus of analysis is the advertising campaign: “I am Universal”, in its communicational marketing, as well as the integral communication of this institution and how it contributes to hegemonic masculinity, analyzed during the years 2020 to 2023. The methodological basis is the depth hermeneutics proposed by John B. Thompson. The theoretical framework is composed of the theory of the communicational imaginary (MORIN; CONTRERA), the theories of hegemonic masculinity (CONNEL) and theorists of the Sciences of Religion and Communication (CUNHA; CAMPOS; MIKLOS; SILVA; PENKAL). The research results showed that media narratives influence the construction of the social imaginary that shapes the identity of individuals and, at the same time, are a reflection of the rules of conduct established by society. From this perspective, the narratives of IURD's advertising campaigns, under market demand, encourage the production of meaning aligned with hegemonic, sexist and patriarchal masculinity.