Jornalismo e desinformação em rede na pandemia da COVID-19: Análise de fake news em grupos de WhatsApp de Parintins/AM

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen a rapid and widespread increase in the sharing of false information on social media. This excess of false or inaccurate content, not only related to health, prevention and protection, which clashed with the indications of reliable health organizations, but also of a political and denialist nature in relation to the press and science, certainly led to risks and hindered the fight. to the disease in the period. In the midst of the issue, this work aimed to debate on Network Journalism and disinformation in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the first half of 2020. The main authors who guided this study were Wardle, with his studies on the types of fake news, Aguiar and Roxo (2019) with their concepts about the term and Fragoso et al (2011) in their collaborations on the netnographic method. The present study carried out a netnography in WhatsApp groups in Parintins from February to July to follow the avalanche of message sharing with intentionally misleading content during the period, given that in these times with a large flow of information, these platforms carry all kinds of content, even opposing the traditional journalistic report. Through online field research, it was possible to catalog several fake news shared in these groups in the municipality of Parintins-AM. From this, an analysis of the characteristics of fake news was carried out, being possible to notice many similarities in the approach of this pertinent information in its identification and combat. In addition to being possible to infer that people often share fake news not only because they are unaware of reality, but also because they deal with issues that justify their beliefs, support certain causes, among other reasons.