Em Quem Confiam os Portugueses? A Gestão da Comunicação Governamental na Pandemia Covid-19

Gisela Gonçalves; Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval; Bianca Persici  Toniolo

doi:10.17231/comsoc.40(2021).3251

Authors

Gisela Gonçalves LabCom – Comunicação e Artes, Faculdade de Artes e Letras, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7001-3622
Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval Observatorio de los Contenidos Audiovisuales, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9521-3364
Bianca Persici Toniolo LabCom – Comunicação e Artes, Faculdade de Artes e Letras, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5496-6271

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.40(2021).3251

Keywords:

communication, trust, covid-19, source of information, Portugal

Abstract

In a health emergency situation, the degree of public compliance with orders from health authorities and governments can significantly affect the course of the pandemic. Based on the assumption that (non-)compliance with the authorities’ recommendations is directly linked to trust in the sources of information, in this article, we discuss the concrete case of the Portuguese government communication during the beginning of the second wave of the disease. In the context of an international investigation of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association Com-Covid network, an online survey was applied to 460 Portuguese citizens between October 7 and November 11, 2020. For this paper, we analyzed a section of the survey with questions regarding the sources of information that inspire greater confidence among the Portuguese population and their opinion on the management of government communication. The surveys were coded and entered in the SPSS statistical software. The study concluded a positive perception of government communication among respondents but that the Portuguese consider healthcare personnel to be more reliable sources of information than the media or government authorities. Regarding the gender issue, it was concluded that women trust the government more and have a better opinion about the authorities’ communication. Regarding age, it was found that young people are the ones who trust more the authorities and the media, while at the same time being the most critical of the government’s performance in managing the crisis. In general, respondents showed little confidence in digital social networks and digital influencers as a source of information about covid-19, and the higher the academic degree, the lesser confidence respondents have in influencers and digital social networks.

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Author Biographies

Gisela Gonçalves, LabCom – Comunicação e Artes, Faculdade de Artes e Letras, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

Gisela Gonçalves has a PhD in communication sciences and is an assistant professor at the University of Beira Interior, where she directs the Master in Strategic Communication: Advertising and Public Relations. She is an integrated researcher in LabCom — Communication and Arts. Her current research interests are communication ethics, political public relations, political and governmental communication. Gisela Gonçalves was coordinator of the strategic and organisational communication section of the European Communication Research and Education Association. She is the general secretary of the Portuguese Communication Sciences Association (Sopcom).

Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval, Observatorio de los Contenidos Audiovisuales, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval has a degree in advertising and public relations (University of Vigo) and audiovisual communication (University of Salamanca). He has a European PhD in audiovisual communication, technological revolution and cultural change from the University of Salamanca and a post-doctorate in communication sciences from the University of Beira Interior. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Communication at the University of Salamanca, where he is also part of the Audiovisual Contents Observatory. He is a collaborator of the communication group LabCom — Communication and Arts. His main research lines are related to the study of culture, heritage and tourism in the digital society and meta-research in communication.

Bianca Persici Toniolo, LabCom – Comunicação e Artes, Faculdade de Artes e Letras, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

Bianca Persici Toniolo is a PhD student in communication sciences at LabCom -— Communication and Arts with a project funded (2020.05702.BD) by the Foundation for Science and Technology. She is editor of the journal Comunicando and her research is focused on governmental crisis communication, oriented by professor Gisela Gonçalves. She coordinates the Young Researchers Working Group of the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (Sopcom).

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