Student ambassadors: Aleida Cristina Mendes Borges | Tatiana Wells
On 19 January, there were only three articles with the word Coronavirus; towards the end of the month (27 January), the number increased to 126.
By February, Wuhan appeared as the virus is related to China.
The term petrol (oil) is frequent as Brazil is an oil producer, and there are concerns about Coronavirus’ economic impact. By 13 February, only two days after the WHO named the disease, there were 39 news reports using the term. Another frequent term was contagio.
The global narrative mainly discussed travelling.
In March, surto (outbreak) is a frequent term indicating the dangers of the virus.
In April, legal vocabulary is very prevalent.
19 January: ‘the unknown virus’ is used; it also refers to places such as Mexico (Jalisco), Chile and China.
22 January: the keywords are Coronavirus (588), China (445), health (411), virus (355) and people (268). Mexico is a country frequently mentioned.
27 January: China is more frequently mentioned than vírus.
2 February: 109 articles discuss the repatriation of citizens from Wuhan to their countries. The keywords are 2020 (671), Coronavirus (504), China (454), health (280) and financial (190).
5 February: keywords: Wuhan, petroleo impactos, surto, OMS.
8 February: articles focus on the impacts of the virus spreading from wildlife to humans. They mostly explore what happens when eating ‘exotic’ animals. They also describe the local food culture in China. One article discusses the basic rights of people from developing countries.
10 February: the expression virus de comida chinesa (Chinese food virus) emerges. The word acoes demonstrates a worrying pattern across the financial market.
11 February: first mention of the term COVID-19 as the WHO officially named it.
18 February: the narrative relates to China.
25 February: keywords: Coronavirus, cases, COVID-19 and health. All countries around the world are counting cases.
3 March: surto is a keyword. China is mentioned less than Mexico.
4 March: there is news about the financial market. Other countries are mentioned: Italia, Mexico, Portugal and Japao.
6 March: an article discusses the dangers associated with commercialising and consuming wild animals (Comer animals salvagers é um barril de pólvora para a said global).
7 March: there is news about Coronavirus reaching Brazil with 13 confirmed cases.
11 March: keywords: coronavirus, health and COVID-19.
16 March: the word medidas (measures) appears for the first time.
17 March: keywords Coronavirus, COVID-19, health, pandemic and Mexico. China and Wuhan have disappeared as Mexico is now a frequently mentioned country.
28 March: in Brazil, media reports that ‘Chloroquine does not prevent the disease’ after the president recommended it as a preventive measure.
6 April: COVID-19 is the main term as there are 1064 news articles for Coronavirus and 1240 for COVID-19. There is a lot of presence of legal narrative: OAB, justiça, medidas, advogados (justices, measures and lawyers). NOTE: this might be because of LexisNexis.
7 April: Estado, medidas, justiça and direito come forward, also pandemia is consolidated.
13 April: there are more news reports about COVID-19 than Coronavirus. The term pandemic is more common. The state is also a common word as people expect an answer from the Brazilian government.
26 April: the news is quite global as there are reports about Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Bolivia, the UK, Chile, Mexico, the USA, Uruguay, Panama, Germany, and China. Some news reported that Boris Johnson is back to work after surviving Coronavirus; they also reported that the nurse who treated Johnson is Portuguese. An article reports how women are taking a huge burden through this virus as women are the majority represented in the most precarious public sector positions. ‘Women are the frontline in the war against COVID-19’.
27 April: Pandemia gets to the forefront, and the word medidas appears. Other words that appear more saude followed by medidas referring to judicial questions, direitos and pessoas.
29 April: pandemia (pandemic), pessoas (people), and saúde (health) are frequent terms. Emergency also appears more often.
