THE SEMIOTICS OF THE SEMIARID: DIGITAL NARRATIVES AND SOCIAL MEDIA AS CONTEXTUALIZED PEDAGOGICAL TOOLS IN RURAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This article presents an integrative literature review aimed at investigating how amateur audiovisual production by young people from the Brazilian Semiarid region constitutes a form of critical multimodal literacy capable of subverting historically attributed stereotypes and functioning as a contextualized scientific investigation tool. The analytical corpus comprises 28 articles selected from six international and national databases, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, ProQuest, SciELO and Redalyc, with searches conducted between November 2025 and March 2026, following a protocol adapted from Whittemore and Knafl (2005) with PRISMA guidelines. Thematic analysis identified four structuring axes: multimodal literacy and social semiotics; digital narrative, identity and belonging; technology, engagement and scientific learning; and affectivity and epistemic agency. Results show that pedagogical practices integrating multimodal composition, digital storytelling and territorial knowledge promote significant shifts in the symbolic power relations that have historically subalternized rural subjects. From the integrative synthesis, the Situated Audiovisual Investigation (SAI) framework is proposed, structured around three dimensions: Territorial Curation, Multimodal Composition and Reflective Dissemination. It is concluded that the semiotics of territory can and should be mobilized as an emancipatory pedagogical device, with direct implications for teacher education, rural school curricula and public policies on contextualized education.