Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

Editorials

May 30, 2023 pt Editorial
Disinformation and communication of science and health in Latin America

by Luisa Massarani and Thaiane de Oliveira

Disinformation is not a recent phenomenon, but it gained strength in the 2010s and expanded its dimension with the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the fields of science and health. This context has contributed to an increase in studies related to disinformation in the context of science and health communication at a global level, but also in our region. This led us to open a call for this special issue on disinformation and communication of science and health in Latin America, which we present in this editorial.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

Articles

May 30, 2023 pt Article
Research on misinformation and science communication: a review of the Latin American literature

by Kaique Mancoso, Amanda Paes, Thaiane de Oliveira and Luisa Massarani

In this article, we aim to carry out a literature review of studies carried out in Latin America on misinformation and science communication, in particular academic articles on this theme. Our corpus consisted of 142 articles, identified in the databases Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions and Scielo. The results show that Brazil is the main stage of these analyses and appears in 65.5% of the corpus. It points to a concentration of research published from 2020, which correlate with the Covid-19 pandemic, being this the most studied theme (69.0%). The articles address digital social network studies (35.2%) and media studies (33.1%). We discuss the need to strengthen research among Latin American countries as a way to understand the specific nature of the circulation of science misinformation in the region and structure better ways to address it.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 pt Article
Discourse on Covid-19 vaccines in Brazil: an analysis in a context of epistemic crisis in the journalistic and scientific fields

by Claudine Freiberger Friedrich

In this research, we analyze the meaning of science discourse in the podcast Café da Manhã during the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, in a context of epistemic crisis in the journalistic and scientific fields. By applying French Discourse Analysis in episodes that dealt with vaccines, we identified three main discourse units: the government was negligent and negligent; vaccination is governed by the market economy; the benefits of vaccines outweigh their risks. From these nuclei of meaning, we observe the influence of the sociopolitical climate permeated by misinformation and denial in the contruction of journalistic discourse about the techno-scientific discoveries during the pandemic.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 pt Article
Science in the media: a proposal for information classification based on the case study of "Folha" and "NYT" in the first year of the pandemic

by Mariana Hafiz, Sabine Righetti, Estêvão Gamba, Fernanda Quaglio de Andrade and Natália Flores

The press plays a key role in the media communication of the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this premise, this study has analyzed a sample of texts on Covid-19 published in "Folha de S.Paulo" and "The New York Times" in the first half of the pandemic in order to categorize the information published in six groups. We found that one in ten contents dealt with "Science and new researches", the same proportion of content covering "Political crisis”. The results show that reporting on science and on crises in the Brazilian and U.S. managements of the pandemic (including misinformation coming from authorities) may have received equal attention from the press.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 es Article
Public discussion on Covid-19 in Mexico: What does Twitter tell us?

by Miguel Garcia-Guerrero, Diogo Lopes-de Oliveira, Erick Moreno, Nereida Martínez-Báez, Amelia Rodríguez-Pinedo and Elizabeth Ruiz-García

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deep global impact in several social spheres, ranging from public health, economic activities, education and even the polarization that has occurred in the public discussion of the subject. Politicians, artists and scientists alike have expressed their positions on social media, producing debates with a wide range of perspectives that are not necessarily based on sound scientific facts. Thus, the conflict between reliable information and misinformation contributes to the growing uncertainty and complexity of the pandemic. This article explores how people look for references to build an opinion regarding the pandemic and the way in which personalities of different ranks, professions and nuances spread their opinions on health issues in Mexico. As methodological tools, the team analyzed hundreds of tweets from eleven profiles, divided into three groups: celebrities, politicians, and science communicators, in 14 relevant events during the pandemic. The results led to the construction of four major sections: deniers, moderates, cautious and critical. With this work, a basis is cemented to develop containment actions against disinformation and strategies to make the impact of Covid-19 visible, given the need for Mexican society to have reliable information to assume a position towards the so-called “new normality”.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 es Article
Analysis of the social network TikTok as a means of scientific dissemination to fight misinformation. Case study: Andean Community

by Sofía Cabrera-Espín, Ana Cecilia Vaca-Tapia and Nicolle Mendoza

During the COVID19 pandemic, social networks became the main source of information and misinformation. In these spaces, image and immediacy prevailed when sharing information. Tiktok appears as an emerging social network with its own performance that promotes entertainment through rapidly making audiovisual content viral. This research studies TikTok as a means of scientific dissemination, analysing the audiovisual resources used and the content published to identify their impact on the social network's niche audiences.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 pt Article
Organisational communication in public universities: the challenges of communicating science in a media-focused society

by Pedro Farnese

This article proposes a conceptual structure to reflect the media-focused society and its intricacies in the organizational communication strategies undertaken by public universities for the dissemination of science and the fight against misinformation. We built a theoretical approach around the articles published in the proceedings of the last five editions of the Brazilian Congress of Communication Sciences (2018 to 2022), specifically in the research group Communication, Scientific Dissemination, Health and Environment. The results demonstrate the need to broaden the discussion on dissemination of the scientific process, converging in interconnected and transdisciplinary directions that include perspectives on the impact of new technologies, democratization of knowledge, and representation of these teaching and research institutions in the social context.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

May 30, 2023 pt Article
The challenges of fighting disinformation in Brazil: methods and perspectives

by Rodolfo Silva Marques, Ivana Cláudia Guimarães de Oliveira and Mário Camarão França Neto

Proposing debates about disinformation is challenging. Processes such as the Covid-19 pandemic or political-electoral scenarios reinforce the need to fight distortions and misinformation. When it comes to science and health, it becomes more relevant. Our objectives are to show the main types of misinformation and discuss their harmful consequences for the public in Brazil, the country this study focuses on. The methodological paths used are the literature review and the categorization of the types of misinformation identified in the country between 2020 and 2021. In the final considerations, we detail the widespread misinformation in the country and the growing number of mechanisms to face it.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

Essays

May 30, 2023 pt Essay
Vaccine misinformation on digital platforms: a symbiotic movement around profitability

by Ana Regina Rêgo and Ranielle Leal

This essay addresses tensions arising from the encounter between the new forms of neoliberal capitalism in life on digital platforms and the communication market that deals with scientific misinformation. To this end, we present statistical data on misinformation about vaccines, as well as theoretical approaches concerning the platforms' negotiating possibilities. On the one hand, optimists who see in the big techs connective business models, on the other, thinkers who consider the platforms as new spaces of exploitation and human colonization, where misinformation presents itself as a strategy to attract users' attention.

Volume 6 • Issue 01 • 2023

Archive