Digital Mobilization of Publics: The Articulation Between Women and Agribusiness Proposed by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock

Abstract

In recent decades, the Brazilian agribusiness sector’s communication has been regarded as an interactional action responsible for encouraging farmers to actively participate in a mutual exchange and learning process within the dynamics involving state agencies, production chains, consumption chains, and other elements related to the abribusiness sector. Considering this context, the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) established the National Committee for Women in Agriculture (NCWA), an initiative aimed at increasing female participation in the Union System, in addition to developing female leaders in the agricultural sector. In view of data obtained by the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (ABAG) indicating that more than 30% of Brazilian rural properties are administered by women and that they have played a prominent role in addressing the issue of sustainability for the sector, the establishment of the Committee demonstrates a pursuit of mobilization of the female public toward agribusiness development. Thus, this study is aimed at tracing and understanding the dynamics of the digital communication used by CNA to mobilize the female public to participate in the National Committee for Women in Agriculture. The study's methodological approach includes reviewing the specialized literature and analyzing CNA’s social network communication geared toward mobilizing the female public, based on the Content Analysis methodology. Specifically, we collected Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts released between August 10 and September 10, 2022, the Committee’s first month of operation. At the end of the study, we found that CNA has no mobilization actions in its networks and that its online communication channels adopt the rural extension known as productivist diffusionism, which prioritizes the transmission of information instead of the mobilization of publics for more active participation.