Risks, dilemmas and opportunities: journalistic activities during the Covid-19

Abstract

This work deals with the role of journalism during the SARS-COV.2 (Covid-19) pandemic, in 2020. In this unique context, in which journalists and the media in general had a leading role, we reflect on the journalistic field (Bourdieu, 1992) relating it to a constructivist notion of reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1999). However, we use the notions of post-truth and “fake news” to demonstrate two of the main lines of force that today involve the media in general, as well as to expose a case analysis about institutions such as the World Health Organization and the European Commission. The objective was to address the problems of disinformation and “infodemia” (Zarocostas, 2020), which occupy the information gaps on the internet. The method used was mixed. In the quantitative dimension, we resorted to the application of a survey with a sample of 365
people, among journalists in the press, in the media in general and in recurring news consumers, about production processes, work routines,
information generated during quarantine and news consumption in confinement time. In the qualitative dimension, we resort to the description of cases that demonstrate the presence of the phenomenon of post-truth and “fake news” in times of pandemic and how it affected social behavior. The results of this analysis point to the need to review certain productive practices in the journalistic field, which accentuate information gaps, in addition to practices that encourage professional insecurity. We note that there is a lack of critical stance between the press and official institutions, whose speeches, when erratic, can make it difficult for the public to perceive the difference between “fake news” and provisional news truths during the coverage of the pandemic. It is also concluded that there is a constant need for self-assessment of the failures of the professional field.