Covid-19: A pandemic that reconfigures journalism?

Abstract

Portugal registered the first cases of infection by SARS-CoV-2 on March 2nd 2020. From March 18th, until May 2nd, the country was in lockdown. The situation was always reported by news media, who assumed the responsibility of guiding citizens’ and tried to become a weapon against the pandemic. As the spreading of the virus becomes faster, the news coverage slows down. Nonetheless, throughout the year, journalism keeps highlighting the pandemic. Was the SARS-CoV-2 news coverage a trigger for some change in journalism? This question leads to the present research that includes a survey amongst journalists and an analysis of the Portuguese daily press. The corpus comprises 2933 news pieces and 6350 references to news sources, and the analysis indicates some novelties that might indicate a significant change in the selection of news sources that may contribute to a readjustment of the media public space.