Crise sanitária, políticas públicas e jornalismo independente: uma análise de textos do The Intercept Brasil durante a pandemia em 2020

Abstract

The aim of this research was to analyze the journalistic discourse presented in the independent collective The Intercept Brasil (TIB), during 2020’s pandemic, in three different periods of the year: at the beginning of the proliferation of coronavirus in Brazil, during which period the country didn’t have a Health Minister and at the end of the year, in a clipping on the social conditions of Brazilians. We discussed the formation of the journalistic discourse of the vehicle when addressing the current health crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus as a problem of the maintenance and application of public policies by the rulers. The specific objectives, listed to make the analysis possible, which we sought to correspond to are: 1) To discuss the formulation of the journalistic discourse of TIB collective while addressing the health crisis problem as a public policies problem; 2) To identify how the reports fit into the socio-historical context – paying attention to the historicity present in the journalistic discourse when approaching the Health Ministry in line with the Federal Government's position; 3) To observe the juncture between the interdiscourse (discursive memory) in the intradiscourse (formulation of the texts). To make the analysis possible, we focused on the studies of Discourse Analysis, considering the discourse as a “socio-historical object in which the linguistic intervenes” (ORLANDI, 2001, p. 16). For this purpose, we sorted six Discursive Sequences from three texts corresponding to the highlighted periods. In order to relate the historicity present in the collective discourse and identify how the vehicle and the texts are inserted in the socio-historical context, the present study traced a path through the history of the formation of the Brazilian press, listing its main conflicts, difficulties and obstacles. It is in this historical relationship, in which journalism faced mechanisms of censorship and authoritarianism, that different techniques and models of independent journalism were created in the dissemination of information as the main means of combat. We also contextualized the current panorama of independent journalism, which found in the digital environment a fertile ground for its productions, such as TIB, on its website. Through the analysis, we concluded that, by calling itself “combative and fearless”, the vehicle reclaims demands, struggles and techniques of independent creation in its history, this way creating public spaces for debate and information. In the midst of yet another clash between political and journalistic discourse, TIB finds ways of confrontation and resistance, in dissonance with traditional media practices, to rescue credibility in crisis, but also to foster combative and investigative journalistic work.