ABSTRACT
The article investigates the occurrence of selective exposure in Brazil, in view of the frequency with which Brazilians said they sought information about the COVID-19 pandemic in the Jornal Nacional and Jornal da Record. It uses data from a content analysis of the coverage of these vehicles in 2020 and data from a national public opinion survey. The analyses showed that partisanship and religion were important predictors of the consumption of news of these vehicles. Evangelicals and supporters of the "Bolsonaro party” were the most assiduous viewers of Jornal da Record. Catholics, supporters of other subtitles and non-partisans consumed more the Jornal National. These results show that Brazilians consume news in line with their political convictions and that some groups may be receiving less information about COVID-19. © 2022,Opiniao Publica. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a vast research agenda focusing on how citizens acquire knowledge about the virus and the health expert guidelines to protect themselves and their close ones against it. While many countries and regions have been accounted for, there still remains a substantial gap with respect to public opinion about the virus in Latin America, most notably in Brazil, which currently has the second highest in number of fatalities in the world. In this article, we employ a national survey of Brazilians (n = 2,771) to measure and explain knowledge and misinformation about the coronavirus and its illness, COVID-19. Our focus concerns the role of political preferences in a context of high elite polarization with a sitting government that has systematically downplayed the risks associated with the coronavirus and its illness. Our findings are clear: political preferences play a substantial role in explaining differences in knowledge about the coronavirus and COVID-19, more than conventional determinants of learning like motivation, ability, and opportunities. Specifically, we find that supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro—an avid science and COVID-19 denier—know significantly less about the coronavirus and its illness and are more likely to believe in a conspiracy theory that claims that the coronavirus was purposefully created in a Chinese laboratory to promote China's economic power, when compared to Brazilians who are less supportive of him and his government. Our findings carry important implications for how Brazilians take informational cues from political elites in that—even in a major event like a global pandemic—supporters of the president are as likely as ever to “follow their leader” and deny expert-backed scientific evidence. Copyright © 2021 Gramacho, Turgeon, Kennedy, Stabile and Mundim.