Journalism reinforced its importance in the pandemic context and was an “effective weapon” in the fight against COVID-19. The conclusions are from a research team from CINTESIS – Center for Health Technology and Services Research, the University of Minho, the University of Coimbra, and The Portuguese Catholic University.
The group analyzed about three thousand news pieces published during the pandemic waves that hit Portugal. The results indicate that news coverage was “very intense” in the first wave, getting ahead and “contributing to guiding citizens’ behavior to protect themselves”.
However, this work shows that “journalism relieved the news pressure in the second wave, and when the epidemiological picture began to worsen in January 2021, journalism was slow to take off as strongly as it did in March 2020.” When news pieces are counted, it is easy to realize that “the number of news about COVID-19 published in the first wave was three times higher than in the third wave in an equivalent period.”
During the studied periods, Journalism also listened to more sources. In the periods of greatest tension (12.3%). The Government focuses on communicating the management of the pandemic. The Prime Minister is the most prominent source (2.7%), followed by three ministers – the Minister of Health, the Minister of the Presidency, the Minister of Social Security and Labor, and then by the Ministers of Education and Health.
Among the sources that have gained ground are professionals and experts. Official sources are the most heard sources when the subject is COVID-19 (with results ranging from 22 to 29%), but professionals and experts from different fields have gained new strength and almost emulate the official sources (with rates ranging from 20 to 25% if we take into account only those who hold a position within research institutions.
“It is important to know how to keep these sources in the media space after we come out of the pandemic. They contribute to the quality of journalism and have been shown to have answers that politics and official sources do not have,” adds Olga Magalhães, a researcher at CINTESIS – Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services.
The most mediatized themes have also changed. In the first wave, in addition to epidemiological portraits, “the news focused mainly on social themes (21%), namely around work and education. However, in the second wave, the media spotlight shifted from social issues (7%) and back to national politics (20%).
The second wave was also “richer in news pieces about medical-scientific research, especially because of expectations surrounding the clinical trials of Sars-Cov-2 vaccines (9%).” The third wave was “marked by particularly negative news, which focused on the Portraits of the Situation (23%), namely regarding the counting of deaths by COVID-19. Within the social themes (17%), education regains news space”.
The study is part of a larger research project aiming to analyze the Health Communication about Covid-19 in Portugal. Other members besides Olga Magalhães (CINTESIS), are Felisbela Lopes (U.Minho), study coordinator, Rita Araújo (U.Minho), Clara Almeida Santos and Ana Teresa Peixinho (U.Coimbra), and Catarina Duff Burnay (U.Católica Portuguesa).