The “language” of mining: discourse and production of meanings from Braskem S.A.'scorporate media communication in Maceió-AL

Abstract

Having the theoretical-analytical devices from Discourse Analysis (DA) as its basis, this article analyzes the Braskem S.A.​'s discourse about the events related to the socio-environmental crime committed by this mining company in the city of Maceió-AL. Through the analysis of some discursive sequences of verbal and non-verbal nature extracted from two leaflets produced by Braskem S.A. and hosted on its website, we seek to understand the meanings attributed by this company to the events in question, as well as the meanings produced about their participation in such episodes. The analysis undertaken here shows that the subject-enunciator Braskem S.A., through its social communication structure, circulates meanings ​which depict the company as a “partnership of the affected communities” and as a “partnership of the State” in its “assistance” ​actions to those affected by ​the environmental crime. These meanings still attribute a “natural” causality to the subsidence of the soil in neighborhoods of Maceió, which exempts the aforementioned company from the socio-environmental consequences of the mining practice.