Digital Populism and Infodemia: Reflections of the Informational Disorder in the Discourse of the Journalistic Audience

Abstract

The objective of this article is to reflect on the bolsonarismo strategy - a movement in support of president Bolsonaro - of fomenting informational disorder through the delegitimationof professional journalism and dissemination of unproven information. Online social media ended the hegemony of professional journalism and boosted the rise of digital populism. In Brazil, bolsonarismo is the result of this new form of political engagement. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) ratified the term "infodemic" (infodemia) as a representation of the informational disorder associated with the covid pandemic19. According to the final report of the CPI on the pandemic, the Bolsonaro government was an agent of the covid19 infodemic in Brazil. The article is an excerpt from the doctoral research completed in 2020, where we carried out a content analysis of 753 comments from readers of O Globo, O Estadão and The Intercept Brasil published from June to December 2019 on the profiles of the vehicles on Facebook. As a result, we were able to evidence the reflections of informational disorder in the discourse of the journalistic audience.