"Brasil Inabitável": um estudo de caso sobre desinformação no jornalismo

Abstract

This undergraduate thesis investigates how failures in journalistic fact-checking can contribute to the dissemination of science misinformation, through a case study of the Brazilian media’s coverage of the article The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (Raymond; Matthews; Horton, 2020), published in the journal Science Advances. This research analyses 275 news articles that distorted the original work’s content, ascribing to it nonexistent assertions, like the idea that Brazil will become uninhabitable until 2070. Based on authors like Bardin (1977) and Wardle and Deraskhshan (2017), we used content analysis to identify how journalism, pressured by mercantilist logic and the fight for visibility, compromises the quality of information. This work reinforces the necessity of an ethical and rigorous science journalism, especially in times of climate crisis and misinformation.