Narrativas conservadoras na pandemia: os editoriais da Gazeta do Povo (2020 – 2023)

Abstract

The study analyzes the conservative narratives constructed in the editorials of the Gazeta do Povo newspaper during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2020 to 2023. This occurred in Brazil under the administration of then-president Jair Messias Bolsonaro, whose actions were marked by downplaying the severity of the disease and promoting policies without scientific validation, in a scenario that recorded over 700,000 deaths. The investigation seeks to answer two central questions: "How was the editorial transformation of Gazeta do Povo carried out?" and "what narratives were employed by Gazeta do Povo during the pandemic?". The objective is to understand the role of conservative media in legitimizing a specific worldview during the health crisis. The work is based on the theoretical perspective of the History of the Present Time. The primary sources consist of a corpus of 298 editorials from the Gazeta do Povo newspaper, collected through the web scraping method with a script developed for the study. The analysis focuses on the narratives and discourses employed in the editorials, understood as the representation of the newspaper's institutional perspective, and examines the relationship of these discourses with the actions of the federal government and the reception by readers, observed in the publications' comments section.The conclusion is that Gazeta do Povo actively constructed an interpretation of the pandemic in which the health crisis was systematically subordinated to a liberal economic agenda and a cultural war. The dominant narrative was that of the "economy above all," where social support measures were seen as fiscal "time bombs" and the only solution was austerity. Although it adopted a pragmatic and pro-science stance regarding vaccination, the newspaper aligned itself with one of the government's main denialist platforms by legitimizing "early treatment," framing the debate as a matter of "medical autonomy" against a supposed "ideological patrol". In moments of great commotion, such as the oxygen crisis in Manaus, the analysis shows that the newspaper acted to dilute the federal government's responsibility, attributing blame to other actors. Thus, the editorials transcended mere opinion, actively participating in the construction of a reality in which the "common good" was redefined and the complexity of science was instrumentalized to legitimize disinformation.