Comunicação em saúde: a cobertura mediática e a gestão da crise COVID-19 numa universidade

In March this year, Portugal closed the first higher education institution in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The media covered the topic exhaustively, while the University of Minho (UMinho) started the crisis management protocols. This study analysis the UMinho media coverage and its communication strategy, as a pretext to reflect on the processes of news production in public health crisis. The case study was the methodology selected to look at this phenomenon, using document analysis (qualitative and quantitative) as main data gathering method. News from six media —Público, Jornal de Notícias, Diário do Minho, Correio do Minho, ComUM and RUM— and the communication messages made public by the University were collected and examined. The research showed an alignment between the news coverage and the UMinho messages. This is a phenomenon mentioned in the 'best practices' of crisis communication, but it raises some concerns. Does the information quality in the public space rely on the alignment of the actors involved in the news process or on the debate and the exercise of the contradictory? Here is a discussion that should bring together the fields of Journalism and Strategic Communication.