Lattes CV: http://lattes.cnpq.br/5832049847796420
Communication Aesthetics and Technologies
Short CV:
Viktor Chagas is professor and researcher at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). He holds a PhD in History, Politics, and Cultural Goods from the Centre of Research and Documentation on Brazilian Contemporary History at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (Cpdoc-FGV). He is an associate member of the National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy (INCT.DD). Currently, he is also an executive board member at the Brazilian Association of Political Communication Researchers (Compolítica) and the editor-in-chief of the journal Revista Compolítica. He is the leader of the Laboratory of Research on Communication, Political Cultures, and Collaborative Economy (coLAB), as well as the coordinator of the extension project #MUSEUdeMEMES (#MemesMuseum).
Advising Interests
Internet and political cultures, online politics, and digital democracy
Digital activism and new political repertoires
Humour and politics, political sociability and entertainment, studies on Internet memes
Political economy of information, public opinion, and online disinformation
Online campaigning, astroturfing, and the professionalisation of politics within digital environments
Research project
Political memes and memes politics: online play and informal conversation as new experiences in political and cyberactivism literacy
Focused on the field of Political Communication, investigation aims at producing a broad research on the intersection between Internet studies and political cultures. Particularly concerned with the modes of aleatory engagement and political play (Bennett, 1979), the research analyses the role played by political memes and informal conversation on politics between Internet users, and is mainly interested in assessing the transformations in political debate within a conjuncture that simultaneously presents (a) the input of new publics within the market of public discourses, and (b) huge changes in the everyday life appropriations of new social media by a strata of the public that only recently familiarised with politics formal dimension.
Selected Publications
Chagas, V. A cultura dos memes: aspectos sociológicos e dimensões políticas de um fenômeno do mundo digital. Salvador: EdUFBA, 2020.
Chagas, V., & Fonseca, V. Faster, higher, stronger: Sports fan activism and mediatized political play in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures, 32, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2020.1707
Chagas, V., Modesto, M., & Magalhães, D. O Brasil vai virar Venezuela: medo, memes e enquadramentos emocionais no WhatsApp pró-Bolsonaro. Esferas, 14, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.31501/esf.v0i14.10374
Chagas, V. Digerindo o indigesto: a escatologia política do Vomitaço. Galáxia, 40, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-25542019137545
Chagas, V., Freire, F., Rios, D., & Magalhães, D. Political memes and the politics of memes: a methodological proposal for content analysis of online political memes. First Monday, 24, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i2.7264
Chagas, V. A febre dos memes de política. Revista Famecos, 25(1), 2018. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2018.1.27025
Santos, J. G. B., & Chagas, V. Direta transante: enquadramentos pessoais e agenda ultraliberal do MBL. Matrizes, 12(3), 2018. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v12i3p189-214