Media Representations of Official Declarations and Political Actions in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Diogo Lopes De Oliveira,Bruce V Lewenstein,Erick Moreno

doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.646445

Diogo Lopes De Oliveira, Bruce V Lewenstein + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.646445

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Abstract

Our case study situates science communication within the interaction of the COVID-19 disease, scientific research about the disease, public statements by relevant officials, media messages, political actions, and public opinion. By studying these interactions in the Brazilian context, we add to the understanding of science communication complexity by studying a context less easily available to the English-speaking research community. Methodologically, we identified key moments in Brazil during the pandemic using tools such as Google Trends, and content analysis of influencers' Twitter and Instagram accounts and digital newspapers. These episodes are then explored as case studies, using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of messages to identify message emphasis frames and political agendas. The results introduce issues rarely explored in previous science communication research, especially ones associated with nationalism and political populism and national inequalities of privilege, income, and trust.

Highlights

Different countries have responded to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 pandemic in diverse ways
Various aspects of the pandemic have complicated the process of assessing what information comes from experts and the degree to which it should be trusted—aspects such as direct access to pre-prints, COVID-19 in Brazil reduced time for experts to respond to public concerns, changing statements from trusted organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and in some countries the politicization of information about the pandemic
The first substantial media linkage of Brazilian President Bolsonaro with the pandemic occurred the day (Figure 2), when he acknowledged the WHO as acting “in a responsible manner”

Summary

Introduction

Different countries have responded to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 pandemic in diverse ways. Understanding the landscape of pandemic information is important for understanding public communication of science because of the rapid changes in how information becomes available to public audiences—through news organizations, through pre-print and openaccess publishing platforms, through direct education sites (such as TED talks), and especially through social media both as a tool for spreading all the other sources and as sites for discussion of those sources. Various aspects of the pandemic have complicated the process of assessing what information comes from experts and the degree to which it should be trusted—aspects such as direct access to pre-prints, COVID-19 in Brazil reduced time for experts to respond to public concerns (de Oliveira and de Oliveira, 2020), changing statements from trusted organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and in some countries the politicization of information about the pandemic

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