The Amazon in pieces: discourses about the division of Pará in the Correio do Tocantins newspaper

Abstract The article is intended to identify and investigate discourses published on the division of Pará state in the Correio do Tocantins, a newspaper that has been in print in Marabá, southeastern Pará, since 1983. Here, discourse is understood from a journalistic point of view that associates characteristics such as objectivity, singularity, actuality, authorship, and ideology to an individual way of speaking. Depth hermeneutics was adopted as a theoretical and methodological posture, as well as the notion of superstructures and macrostructures of critical discourse studies utilized as the main research technique. Eight articles from the first edition of the Correio do Tocantins were analyzed. The main conclusions point to discourses that value the Serra dos Carajás to the detriment of the Tocantins River, the clash between the Marabá elites and the state and federal governments, and the transfer of Marabá’s political and economic importance to Imperatriz, Maranhão.