Intellectuals in the press: controversy, antagonism… and polyphony? (Argentina, 2019)

Abstract

Based on a selection of press releases published in the digital editions of Clarín, La Nación, Infobae, La Prensa and Perfil, this paper aims to analyze some features of the interventions of intellectuals in the press in the context of a controversy occurred in Argentina between September and November 2019. The controversy, which arises in response to the statements of the sociologist and researcher Horacio González in an interview for a counter-hegemonic journal, challenges the social representation of some events in the recent history of the country, and in particular, the conceptualization of the guerilla in the 70s. The discourses that circulated on the occasion of this controversy show certain recurring textual strategies that social actors deploy to (de)legitimize actions and interpretations, and promote, perpetuate, negotiate and discuss the meanings from which a public organization of society is attempted. One of these strategies consists of clipping, erasing and decontextualizing the point of view. As this paper shall attempt to demonstrate, the effectiveness of this strategy lies in the ability to render the adversary's arguments, approaches and ideas illegitimate, to the point of nullifying or inhibiting any answer.