In between the Pandemic and Populism: A look into the 2021 female presidential candidates in Portugal

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the form and substance of the official campaign for the 2021 Portuguese presidential elections. It called for several adjustments to planned campaign actions, constraining candidates' mobility and popular mobilization. This context favored the fermentation of populist discourses and the radicalization of political debate. These circumstances led to an unprecedented electoral contest in the recent history of democracy in Portugal. One of the least explored topics in studies about populism is gender and the place of women in the globalized society. In this context, this paper examines the media coverage of the 2021 Portuguese presidential elections in television news services of the following channels: RTP1, SIC, TVI and CMTV. This analysis covered the period of the official campaign and focused on the two female candidates, Ana Gomes and Marisa Matias. © 2022 Associacao Portuguesa de Estudos sobre as Mulheres. All rights reserved.

RISK SOCIETY AND URBAN HYGIENISM IN THE COVID-19 SCENARIO: URBAN INVISIBILITY AND ACCESS TO THE HOUSE OF SOCIAL INTEREST (HIS), IN THE NATIONAL POLICY OF THE STREET POPULATION (PNPR)

This study aims to address: a) the foundations of the risk society and the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on homeless people and the main failures in access to the fundamental right to housing, provided for in the National Policy for Homeless People (PNPR - Decree n. 7.053/2009);b) the precariousness of the official databases and the main causes for the increase in this contingent of Brazilians;c) the main factors of the inefficiency of access to housing in terms of the PNPR guidelines;d) the absence of data on the real number of the housing deficit of homeless people in Brazilian capitals and d) main failures of the Social Interest Housing (HIS) programs for PNPR. It consists of exploratory bibliographic research, with the analysis of public documents on the survey of the existing street population in some Brazilian capitals and their access to housing and the consequences of the denial of such fundamental right in the pandemic scenario, identifying, at the end, the invisibility of this portion of the population and the main affirmative actions of visibility of the affected individuals and the main factors of maintenance of the specific housing deficit for this population group.

Television coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal: An exploratory study

2020 will be remembered globally as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although this disease had emerged in China in the end of 2019, its global spread a few months later threatened the globalized society, causing serious social, political, and economic effects, not all yet understood. Journalism has been in crisis over the past few decades (Zelizer, 2004;2009;2017), but the coverage of this pandemic through diverse devices and screens (Deuze, 2019) brought a new vigor to the role of journalism. In Portugal, during a period of homely isolation, television played a role of social link (Wolton, 1994), demonstrating that it is still the dominant medium (ERC, 2016, 2019;OBERCOM, 2018;Statista, 2018). In this context, our tribute to Nelson Traquina has the aim of presenting, commenting, and discussing his contribution to the study of television journalism in Portugal by assessing the television coverage of this pandemic crisis. For this purpose, we have retrieved theoretical studies about the theories of news and empirical studies about HIV/AIDS done by Traquina (1993, 2002, 2004, 2010 and Traquina et al., 2001). We have empirically assessed both the lunchtime and evening television news services of the channels RTP1, SIC and TVI. We have built a database using a definition of assessment categories, which although was inspired by the work of Traquina about HIV/AIDS, was adapted to the specificities of this new disease. The results enable a discussion about the theories of news as “construction” (Traquina, 1993) and the role of routines in the production of news. © 2020 Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Center for Media Research and Journalism. All rights reserved.