Editorial

IMBALANCE AND COMMUNICATION

We who study public communication and keep this channel open, pursuing the objective that the public dimension of government communication qualifies democracy, follow the repair and ruptures in relations between government, society and institutions sustained by COVID19.

Subjected to the consequences of an out-of-control global pandemic, governments are forced to take action and care for their citizens. In most countries, for the first time, economic policy was subjected to public health investment policies. Life first. Unexpected networks of solidarity and municipal, state, federal and international agreements sprout from all sides. The world seems to unite around the same goal: survival, security and tranquility to start over. We can identify the movement of public communication networks, through which different societies, rulers and media revolve around a single theme, life.

Processes of contagion, prevention, medication, vaccines and research on this global threat have been transformed into a single agenda, of public interest, addressed by millions of people, in hundreds of communicative devices. Politicians, celebrities, artists and anonymous citizens dedicate themselves to the theme and try to contribute. In the name of the public interest, a rearrangement of forces and relationships can be identified: the press seems to recover its public function of informing, pursuing the truth, providing public service; the legislative and judiciary powers seem to wake up and defend the rights of society; the University engages in the fight against the virus; until recently hidden associations and entities reinforce their actions with workers and the poor; public health, the Brazilian SUS, becomes defensible and seems to recover public investment; and private organizations join the fight advising and selling their services, products, associating public and market interests.

In Brazil, however, presidential actions and speeches go against the grain of this historic moment. From his place of power, President Jair Bolsonaro assumes different personas to discredit international concern, ridicule the strength of COVID19 and discredit science. Using all the power conferred upon him by the vote, he promotes insecurity, disintegration; he calls on his followers to substitute religious for scientific discourse; turns medicines into political cards and disrespects its ministerial staff, governors and mayors, in the name of a particular “truth”, with no rational basis.

His unreasonable attitudes made him an international fixture. Whether ridiculed or applauded, he deconstructs elementary principles of communication and appropriate postures for a president of a democracy. His irresponsible behavior indicates the dispute for a public image centered on the political part of the virus, in which there is no room for public health and for the lives of Brazilians.

OBCOMP remains vigilant in identifying and analyzing the relationships between the State, the media and society, publishing news and opinion content since the beginning of this health crisis, exposing its public and private dimensions. Observatories in democratic regimes are even more important when rulers flirt with authoritarianism and with the threat to the lives of citizens.

Porto Alegre, April 14, 2020.