Problematizing negationism: COVID-19 pandemic, democracy, and human rights

• Grant number: 21/07121-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Marcos César Alvarez
• Grantee: Pablo Emanuel Romero Almada
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07923-7 - Center of the Study of Violence - NEV/USP, AP.CEPID
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/11776-1 - Disinformation, Denialism, and Authoritarianism: Analyzing the paths of delegitimizing democracy and the role of Telegram., BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The project aims to problematize, catalog, and understand the discourse of negationism concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, democracy, and human rights, understanding it as an essential element of current political culture and socially implanted authoritarianism close relationship with social networks. Based on the hypothesis of nuances and specificities of negationism(historical, scientific, environmental, and racial), it is intended to understand how the theme has been presented in the media (newspapers) and, in contrast, how it is conveyed in social networks, with an emphasis on content analysis of channels of the Telegram messaging application. The research methodology will operationalize the collection and analysis of big data on two fronts: (i) through a web crawler that captures news that mentions denial; and (ii) collecting the content of Telegram channels, and in both procedures, there is the identification of keywords and thematic analysis. Finally, it is expected to comparatively analyze the content, showing how the negationist discourse imposes itself, its targets, arguments, and dissemination methods. (AU)