International Journal of Humanities and Social Science

ISSN 2220-8488 (Print), 2221-0989 (Online) 10.30845/ijhss

Nuances of the Odebrecht Case Coverage by American, Brazilian, Latin American and European Media: Criminalization of Corruption or Ideology?
Dr. Alvaro Nunes LARANGEIRA, Dr. Franco IACOMINI JR,Dr. Tarcis PRADO JR, Dr. Moisés CARDOSO, Msc. Antonio Carlos Persegani FLORENZANO

Abstract
Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is present in 25 countries, such as the United States, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Angola, Mozambique, Portugal and Germany. The United States Department of State considers the case of the Brazilian company as the “greatest case of global corruption in history”, due to the payment of US $ 1 billion in bribes to political parties and governments in 12 countries, and the episode played a decisive role. in the Brazilian impeachment of ex-president Dilma Rousseff. The media approach of Odebrecht case's has presented analytical nuances related to the mentioned countries. Reports on socialist Cuba, Bolivarian Venezuela and progressive Ecuador associate Odebrecht's shadowy procedures with the central core of the respective governments, while in the case of right-wing and center-right governments corruption reaches only the lower echelons, disregarding the central power. And in the American case, there is the unique cover-up of the executive power accountability in the corrupting process. The present review proposes, from the Critical Discourse Analysis, by Teun A. van Dijk, and from the concepts of Discursive Formations and Operative Neutrality, by Michel Pêcheux, to understand the investigative dissonances on the part of the media, based on the proposition that the corruption´s phenomenon has its own understanding and criminalization for the media field. Those concepts are conditioned to cultural, geopolitical and ideological instances, with which media firms are identified or with which they repudiate.

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