Gotta catch’em all! - Identity discourses on the consumption of Pokemon GO in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: The release of the game Pokemon GO generated a frenzy never seen in Brazil in relation to a videogame and revealed to the country the existence of a public aficionado for pop culture and technology, called nerds. The takeover of cities by virtual monster hunters had a huge impact on the mainstream media and led different audiences to take a stand. Assuming consumption as an identity practice, present work had the objective of analyzing the identity constitution of the Brazilian users of Pokemon GO through the discourses that were established from the announcement of the release of the game in the country.

Method: We adopted Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), which demonstrate how certain discourses reveal regularities. The corpus research consisted of news published over twenty months, from the announcement of the product.

Relevance: The nerd audience has gained social and economic importance, both because of the relevance of pop culture in the contemporary world and the the growth of the entertainment industry.

Results: We identified two discursive formations related to the consumption of Pokemon GO in Brazil: one referring to the search for legitimacy of the nerd identity and another to the stigma to this imputed one.

Methodological contribution: The research presents a systematized operationalization of the Foucauldian method.

Theoretical contribution: Findings lead to the understanding of nerd consumption as an arena of identity politics.

Social contribution: The study put in evidence a social identity that, despite its economic importance, is still characterized as a minority.