SOCIAL INEQUALITIES AND COVID-19 IN BRAZIL:

An analysis of narratives produced on social media in 2020

Abstract

This article examines social media narratives during the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil,  focusing on socioeconomic and racial narratives and the importance of accurate and  reliable communication. For this, more than 28.1 million posts were collected on Facebook,  Instagram, and Twitter, between March 13 and October 16, 2020. It was seen that these  narratives reflected different interests and perspectives of Brazilian society, while some  highlighted the responsibility of individuals in preventing the virus, others emphasized the  need for public policies to mitigate its effects on the most vulnerable populations. These  narratives were also related to political and economic issues, reflecting disputes between  different political-economic models. The study identifies the actions of representatives  of a neoliberal model that advocated less state intervention, being unable to deal with  the effects of the pandemic and, as a defensive response, adopting the delegitimization of  the unequal impact of the pandemic by promoting false narratives and misinformation.  Representatives of the other model, on the other hand, defended greater state intervention,  recognizing the importance of preventive measures and the strengthening of the SUS to  combat the pandemic. This study seeks to contribute to the understanding of social and  political dynamics in times of crisis, showing how the narratives present in public arenas  such as Brazilian social media were used both as a means of attack and resistance to social  inequality exacerbated by the pandemic and as a means of dissemination of accurate  information to combat the virus and misinformation.