Comunicação pública da ciência: o uso do discurso constituinte e paratópico da ciência para construção do ethos discursivo no Jornal da USP

Abstract

This research is a discourse analysis of the reports directed to the Public Communication of Science of the Jornal da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), from the constitutive discourse conception of science, and therefore of paratopia, for the purpose of the university's ethos of discourse construction. The empirical object was the Jornal da USP, with temporal corpus being the period from August to September 2021 and the online domain of the portal (https://jornal.usp.br/) as spatial corpus. The theoretical object was the Discourse Analysis, with the theoretical line focused on Maingueneau (2006, 2010). Throughout the study, it was found that science, as a constituent discourse and under effect of paratopia, instigates society and promotes sociodiscursive roles, as is the case of Public Communication of Science. It was observed that in the process of the enunciation of the news, the scientific researches developed at USP have the university as a legitimating Source, at the same time that the ethos of the institution itself is constructed and reinforced by this same discourse. The dissertation contributes to the improvement of reflections on Public Communication of Science of Higher Education Institutions (IESs) and Scientific and Technological Institutions (ICTs) in Brazil. It is the duty of institutions to establish communication with the internal and external public about the research that is developed, because these investments in public agencies start from the population, since the knowledge acquired through science needs to return to society. However, as a characteristic of constituent discourses, scientific language is distant from social. Public Communication of Science, in turn, becomes a bridge with society. Therefore, it becomes relevant to consider it as a strategic tool to strengthen the ethos of an institution with regard to ensuring the prestige of the science produced there and, consequently, in the power added to the institution itself.