The disinformation network and public health at risk: an analysis of fake news in epidemic settings

• Grant number: 20/05274-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: February 01, 2021 - January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Carla Montuori Fernandes
• Grantee: Carla Montuori Fernandes
• Host Institution: Vice-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade Paulista (UNIP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Carla Reis Longhi ; Ivanilce Santos Oliveira ; Luiz Ademir de Oliveira ; Mariane Motta de Campos ; Mayra Regina Coimbra ; Patricia Cristina de Lima ; Thamiris Franco Martins ; Vinícius Borges Gomes
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/05352-9 - The disinformation network and public health at risk: an analysis of the fake news in epidemic settings, BP.TT

Abstract

The research project is inserted in the research of the Postgraduate Program in Communication of the Universidade Paulista (UNIP), in the line of research Configuration of Languages and Audiovisual Products in Media Culture. This line seeks to continue my investigations and those of my advisors, who are part of the Research Group "Media and Means in the Post-truth context" of which I work as coordinator. This group aims to analyze the post-truth narrative in different media spheres, with a view to increasing the circulation of content whose purpose has become disinformation. In this sense, the project "The disinformation network and public health at risk: an analysis of false news in epidemic scenarios" aims to analyze such content from the perspective of the wave of false information that circulates in circumstances of epidemic risk, with the aim of object of study social networks and specific events in which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international importance. The theoretical line will seek in the discussions of post-modernity (LYOTARD, 1998; BAUMAN, 1999, LEMERT, 2000) and post-truth (KAKUTANI, 2018; KEYES, 2018; D´ANCONA, 2018; MCINTYRE, 2018), as well as in concepts of cyberculture and cyberspace (LEVY, 1997), the assumptions to analyze the narrative of false news, fake news in English, which circulate on social networks and generate a wave of discredit in the area of public health. This approach will focus mainly on the fake news that circulated on Facebook and Twitter, the epidemics of Swine Flu (H1N1), Ebola virus (DVE), Avian Flu (H5N1), Dengue and Yellow Fever and the recent outbreak of Coronavirus SARS, both highlighted between the period 2009 to 2020. The methodology used combines quantitative research, supported by data measured using software for mapping and monitoring social networks, for later reading and interpretation of results, using the analysis method of content (BARDIN, 2011). (AU)