Fake news? uma análise discursiva de dois casos de desinformação durante a pandemia da covid-19 e o apagão no Amapá

Abstract

This work proposes to analyze two cases of false information that received a high number of shares on the internet. The first case occurred at the height of the pandemic period in 2020, when unofficial information about a possible lockdown that would take place in the municipality of Macapá (AP) was published. The second case refers to information that a large supply of blood had been lost due to lack of electricity at the Institute of Hematology and Hemotherapy of Amapá (Hemoap), during the blackout period in the state of Amapá. Considering these facts, this research aims to demonstrate how false information can: a) trigger negative events in society; b) contribute directly to the production, misunderstanding and sharing of misinformation by the public; c) demonstrate how Amapá journalism worked to clarify the cases. Furthermore, the objective is to analyze discursive and journalistic practices, starting from the theoretical-methodological framework of discourse analysis. In this sense, the following question is pointed out as problematic: if people were kept constantly informed in both periods, how and in what way was there an opening for the propagation of fake news? Considering the pandemic and blackout scenario in the state of Amapá, the result obtained with this monograph indicates that the emergency experienced in the health area created a fragility in society, generating insecurity and anxiety due to the lack of answers about what would be happening in the world. Thus, the media manipulations, conveyed in digital spaces, mainly in the form of texts full of distortions and hyperboles, aroused uncontrolled emotions in the population, contributing to society ignoring the notions of the true and the false.