Public Communication and the pre-election disputes in times of pandemic

• Autor(a) principal: Souza Junior, Nivaldo Cesar de
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ciências do Estado (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revice/article/view/e41049
• topic: Public communication; Party political disputes; Bolsonaro; Pandemic; Comunicação pública; Disputas político-partidárias; Bolsonaro; Pandemia; Comunicación pública; Disputas políticas partidarias; Bolsonaro; Pandemia

With the spread of a virus causing so many deaths, there is great apprehension about the unfolding of this crisis and how it affects people's lives. In this sense, the pronouncements of government authorities and scientists become very necessary to inform and coordinate the course of the fight against Covid-19. This essay undertakes a reflective analysis of pre-election disputes in the pandemic, having the notion of public communication as an analytical guide. Public positions of federal government representatives throughout the pandemic were analyzed, especially by Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter and information from the news. In addition, we articulate these findings with the context of disinformation, triggering what the literature presents about the elements that contribute to this picture of information disorder. Therefore, through direct observation, we followed the pre-election demonstrations waged by Jair Bolsonaro with various public figures, especially in the political environment and with the traditional media, including former allies such as João Dória and Henrique Mandetta, his former Minister of Health. The proximity of the elections and the fear of the impacts on the economy seem to have been the main concerns of the government, which only acted at times when the national commotion and political threats made the government's omissions explicit, building new antagonists and giving the spotlight to other political actors, especially in the opposition camp. Finally, we highlight a scenario of government vulnerability, which has always been more reactive than proposing in the fight against the coronavirus.