Os impactos da desordem informacional para o fenômeno da infodemia: uma análise a partir dos discursos políticos sobre a COVID-19

Abstract

The dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic, originally a health crisis considered the biggest challenge of the 21st century, shed light on a series of social issues, before and after the proliferation of the new coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, throughout the world. For some authors, the exponential advance of the disease had as its backdrop the weaknesses, mainly of the neoliberal economy, crossed by social inequalities. It also caused imminent fear in the world population, surrounding the unknown and the lack of effective measures to combat the virus. The rise of the infodemic phenomenon, a category known as the information epidemic, characterized by the exacerbated flow of information – true, false, incomplete or taken out of context – contributed to this, with severe impacts on the social fabric. From this panorama, this dissertation presents an exploratory study on the impacts of the dissemination of misinformation, as an element of the disinfodemic, produced in the speeches of former president Jair Messias Bolsonaro. To do this, he uses Foucauldian analysis of seven of his speeches, given in official statements and TV interviews, during the first month of the pandemic in Brazil. Then, the incidence of these discursive materials was verified in the country's main fact-checking agency, Aos Fatos. With this, it was concluded that, of the seven speeches, six went through fact checking, due to inconsistencies, demarcating a narrative pattern marked by contradictions, inaccuracies and false information.