TY - JOUR
T1 - The visibility of specialised sources in journalism
T2 - the example of COVID-19
AU - Lopes, Felisbela
AU - Araújo, Rita
AU - Magalhães, Olga
AU - Santos, Clara Almeida
AU - Peixinho, Ana Teresa
AU - Burnay, Catarina Duff
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDB/00736/2020 (base funding) and UIDP/00736/2020 (programme funding), and within the scope of the con-tract signed under the transitional provision laid down in article 23 of Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of August 29, as amended by Law no. 57/2017, of July 19.
Publisher Copyright:
© This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
PY - 2023/6/13
Y1 - 2023/6/13
N2 - During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese news media assumed a crucial role in informing the population, striving to develop knowledge about the disease, and promoting preventive behaviours to reduce transmission. To do so, they relied mainly on experts. While official interlocutors were still present in journalistic texts, scholars and physicians gained significant visibility. This article analyses how specialised sources contribute to news content in the Portuguese press. It presents findings from a study on the coverage of COVID-19. This study examines editions of the Portuguese newspapers Público and Jornal de Notícias during the state of emergency periods from March to May 2020, November to December 2020, and January to February 2021. The corpus of analysis includes 2,933 news texts and 6,350 sources: during the first phase of the national emergency, 1,850 texts were published, citing 4,048 sources; in the second phase, 457 texts were published, citing 857 sources; finally, during the third phase, 626 texts were published, citing 1,445 sources. The content analysis findings highlight the strength of professionals as reliable sources of information, particularly health professionals and scholars from the medical and social sciences. Regardless of their position, experts are more prominent in the media than official sources.
AB - During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese news media assumed a crucial role in informing the population, striving to develop knowledge about the disease, and promoting preventive behaviours to reduce transmission. To do so, they relied mainly on experts. While official interlocutors were still present in journalistic texts, scholars and physicians gained significant visibility. This article analyses how specialised sources contribute to news content in the Portuguese press. It presents findings from a study on the coverage of COVID-19. This study examines editions of the Portuguese newspapers Público and Jornal de Notícias during the state of emergency periods from March to May 2020, November to December 2020, and January to February 2021. The corpus of analysis includes 2,933 news texts and 6,350 sources: during the first phase of the national emergency, 1,850 texts were published, citing 4,048 sources; in the second phase, 457 texts were published, citing 857 sources; finally, during the third phase, 626 texts were published, citing 1,445 sources. The content analysis findings highlight the strength of professionals as reliable sources of information, particularly health professionals and scholars from the medical and social sciences. Regardless of their position, experts are more prominent in the media than official sources.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Jornalismo
KW - Fontes de informação
KW - Especialistas
KW - COVID-19
KW - Journalism
KW - Information sources
KW - Experts
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163181081&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17231/comsoc.43(2023).4270
DO - 10.17231/comsoc.43(2023).4270
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85163181081
SN - 1645-2089
VL - 43
JO - Comunicação e Sociedade
JF - Comunicação e Sociedade
M1 - e023011
ER -
