Covid-19: Uma Pandemia Gerida Pelas Fontes Oficiais Através de uma Comunicação Política

Felisbela Lopes; Rita Araújo; Olga Magalhães

doi:10.17231/comsoc.40(2021).3520

Authors

Felisbela Lopes Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9227-8998
Rita Araújo Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7124-6057
Olga Magalhães Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7559-4611

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.40(2021).3520

Keywords:

covid-19, journalism, official news sources, health communication

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 pandemic attracted a wide range of expert sources into journalism, especially those from the health field. Nonetheless, official sources (mainly politicians) did not become less visible. They were mainly decision-makers, even though decisions were not always well-communicated, which promoted entropy. Worldwide, countries adopted different strategies, some undergoing severe lockdowns and others rejecting restrictive measures — and that was often difficult to understand. The management of this pandemic was hard, not only due to the lack of technical knowledge but also due to the lack of cooperation and coordination amongst several stakeholders, such as governments, health authorities, or experts. In this research, we seek to understand the role of official sources in the Portuguese press during the emergency states. In order to do so, we analyzed two national newspapers, a reference newspaper (Público) and a mainstream newspaper (Jornal de Notícias) from March 18 to May 2, 2020, and from November 9 to December 23, 2020. Our corpus comprises 2.307 news pieces: 1.850 were published during the first emergency state, quoting 4.048 news sources, and 457 were published during the second emergency state, with 857 sources. We realized that official news sources are highly visible in the news, especially those from the government, such as the prime minister and a few other ministers. Although evidence recommends the appointment of an official spokesperson, that did not happen in Portugal, and it may have contributed to some lapses throughout 2020. By the end of the year, the country had an increase in covid-19 cases, and the hesitancy that characterized political decisions was also behind that.

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Author Biographies

Felisbela Lopes, Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Felisbela Lopes is an associate professor with aggregation at the University of Minho, where she has worked since 1994. She was a pro-rector for communication from 2009 to 2014. Her research is focused on television information, health journalism and news sources, and she teaches in the field of journalism. Both her aggregation and PhD work are focused on television information. She is author of several publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, amongst which are Marcelo, Presidente Todos os Dias (Marcelo, Everyday President; Porto Editora, 2019), Jornalista: Uma Profissão Ameaçada (Journalist: A Threatened Profession ; Alêtheia, 2015); Vinte Anos de TV Privada em Portugal (Twenty Years of Private TV in Portugal; Editora Guerra e Paz, 2012); A TV do Real (The Real TV; Minerva, 2008); A TV das Elites (The TV of the Elites; Campo das Letras, 2007) e o Telejornal e o Serviço Público (Television News and Public Service; Minerva, 1999).

Rita Araújo, Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Rita Araújo, PhD in communication sciences, is a researcher at Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho. Her research interests are health communication and journalism, news sources, and health literacy. She was a visiting scholar at Hunter College, City University School of Public Health, New York, and she was a member of the Portuguese research team of Health Reporting Training Project (2010-3675 HeaRT), financed by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Program. She was a researcher within the national project Disease in the News (PTDC/CCI-COM/103886/2008), financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. She is the author and co-author of several publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, and she has presented her research at many national and international conferences.

Olga Magalhães, Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Olga Estrela Magalhães, PhD in communication sciences by University of Minho, is specialized in media relations in the area of health research. She is a researcher at CINTESIS (Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde) and she coordinates the Communication and Image Department at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto. Her research interests include health communication, science communication, journalism, and media relations.

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