Divulgação cinetífica e mídias digitais: respostas emocionais de adolescentes frente à pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

The information by Digital Media (MD), understood as a virtual ambience of access, sharing and creation of mass content, vary from sources and forms of communication. A close reading, in this context, makes it possible to identify whether information about science is based on evidences or phenomenas such as fake news and negationism. In general, those informations can result in Emotional Responses (RE) in the public that reads them. In the scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic, several studies have shown emotional consequences, caused by aspects such as economic impacts, social distancing, high number of deaths and feeling the symptoms caused by the virus. Scientific Divulgation (DC), published in MD, can also cause RE by demonstrating this scenario. Adolescents were not exempt from this reality, as they also went through the changes of the pandemic and were faced with this DC day by day, at the stage of life in which emotions are normally experienced with intensity. The present research investigated RE of adolescents in the face of DC about Covid-19 present in MD. The aim was to gather information accessed by participants about vaccines, medications, disease treatments, among other topics related to this scope, investigate the RE of adolescents and discuss strategies that can help institutions, professionals and family members to deal with this public. This research is based on a semi-structured interview with 9 young people between 15 and 17 years old, students from the 8th year of Elementary School (EF) to the 3rd year of High School (EM), sur DC about the Covid-19 pandemic, published in MD. Their RE were identified and analyzed. Physical, neurological and cultural characteristics of the subject were considered to contextualize the RE of adolescents, supported by theoretical references that discuss emotions: Paul Ekman, António Damásio, Alberto Bellocchi. The results showed the impact caused by DC on the subject in the perception of adolescents, inferring the RE: sadness, surprise, contempt and relief, with greater frequency; and anger, contentment, fear and aversion, less present when compared to the previous ones. These RE occurred because of aspects raised by the participants, such as attitudes of people who didn’t comply with protective measures against Covid-19, the fast spread of the disease as well as its repercussions on MD and the current situation of the pandemic at the time of interview, represented by the number of cases decreasing and the face-to-face activities returning.