The Production of Meaning About the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Brazilian Journalistic Discourse

Abstract This paper analyzes how the journalistic discourse becomes a stage for the discussions between different points of view about the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil when using the voice of science, supported by scientific knowledge, and the voice of the idiot, when combats the former voice. Our corpus consists of five headlines and five leads about the theme, published on the website of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo between March 20 and 24, 2020. The dialogical relations analysis showed that journalistic discourse comes to be a bivocalization in the scientific discourse, expressing the voice of science diffusely; creates an arena of discussions between the voice of science and the voice of the idiot, bringing anti-science valuations when bivocalizes itself with the Bolsonarist discourse; and discredits the voice of the idiot, standing off from it through the quoted speech, as well as producing the effects of meaning over the Covid-19.