Argumentative aiming in antiracist technodiscourse

the carousel post as a technogenre on Instagram

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of argumentative orientation in carousel posts published on Instagram, focusing on the circulation of anti-racist discourses within this digital ecosystem. The investigation is based on a corpus composed of ten publications affiliated with the hashtag #racismo, produced by Brazilian collectives, activists, and influencers engaged in denouncing racial inequalities. The aim is to understand how argumentative meanings are constructed in technodiscursive practices marked by political engagement and digital performativity. The study adopts Digital Discourse Analysis (Paveau, 2022) as a theoretical framework, mobilizing four technolinguistic dimensions: morpho-lexical, enunciative, discursive, and semiodiscursive. It draws on Amossy’s (2017) conception of argumentative orientation, according to which every discourse is inscribed in a situation of interlocution and seeks to influence the representations, attitudes, or actions of the other, even when it does not adopt an explicit argumentative form. This perspective makes it possible to understand argumentation as a constitutive component of discourse, articulating the speaker’s positioning, linguistic-discursive strategies, and the horizon of meaning mobilized in interactions. The analysis shows that carousel posts can operate as strongly argumentative native digital technogenres, in which multiple materialities and interactive resources are mobilized to support sociopolitical positions. The morpho-lexical dimension highlights the strategic use of activist hashtags as technowords, functioning as markers of affiliation and engagement. The enunciative dimension reveals the recurrent use of reported technodiscourse, especially in its reiterative form, through the insertion of screenshots and excerpts from other platforms, expanding techno-enunciative heterogeneity. In the discursive dimension, carousel posts are configured as a “prodused” technogenre, with a sequential and compartmentalized structure that favors argumentative progression. Finally, the semiodiscursive dimension underscores the articulation between verbal language and visual-graphic resources, especially technographisms, which reinforce the argumentative purpose of discourse. The study demonstrates that argumentative orientation in technodiscourses is co-constructed by subjects, platforms, and technical devices.