Social emergency and pandemic visions in Latin America: A study of the communication flows on Facebook during the first half of 2020

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methaodos.revista de ciencias sociales. Vol. 10 Núm. 2 (2022)
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Published: Oct 31, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17502/mrcs.v10i2.553
Keywords:
COVID-19, social emergency, social media, post-pandemic futures, media coverage COVID-19, flujos comunicativos, redes sociales, futuros post pandémicos, cobertura de medios
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Rosa María Alonzo González
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1618-7634
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
David Ramírez Plascencia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3287-8769
Universidad de Guadalajara

Abstract

This work focuses on the communication flows related to COVID-19 generated in Latin America by Facebook users during the first half of 2020. The main objective is to analyze the information shared in relation to three main categories: (a) government actions related to public health and safety, (b) society's reactions to the emergency, and (c) the vision of the post-pandemic future. The methodology used in this work is content analysis, from which a study corpus was analyzed, to identify and generate categories on the topics addressed in the information flows. Frequency distribution tables were used to ponder the diffusion weights of each thematic category. The results provide, from an exploratory level, evidence on the impact of social networks in the pandemic context, not only in a positive way, but also generating uncertainty, protests, and repression through the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories.

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How to Cite
Alonzo González, R. M., & Ramírez Plascencia, D. (2022). Social emergency and pandemic visions in Latin America: A study of the communication flows on Facebook during the first half of 2020. methaodos.Social Science Journal, 10(2), 193-206. https://doi.org/10.17502/mrcs.v10i2.553
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Vol. 10 No. 2 (2022)
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Rosa María Alonzo González, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California

PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Colima. She is currently a member level 1 of the National System of Researchers (SNI) and affiliated to the University of Guadalajara where she is doing post- doctoral research for CONACYT at the University Center of the South and collaborates with the University of Colima in Agorante, a research group in society and technology. Her works focus on the social uses of ICT and digital skills, digital production, and consumption, as well as communication and digital culture. She is a professor of the master’s degree in Electronic Government, Learning Management in Virtual Environments of the System of the Virtual University at the University of Guadalajara and on Higher Secondary Education of the National Pedagogical University (UPN) Unit 061 Colima, Mexico.

David Ramírez Plascencia, Universidad de Guadalajara

Doctor en Ciencias Sociales por El Colegio de Jalisco. Es investigador y docente de materias relacionadas con las nuevas tecnologías de la información y comunicación y su impacto en la sociedad. Fue coordinador de la Maestría en Gestión de Servicios Públicos en Ambientes Virtuales en la Universidad de Guadalajara, fundador de Paakat: Revista de Tecnología y Sociedad, y fundador del Observatorio de Gobierno Electrónico de UDGVirtual. Ha publicado diversos artículos sobre la censura en medios digitales, migración y redes sociales, así como el impacto de las políticas digitales en el desarrollo social. Actualmente es miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) Nivel 1 y trabaja como profesor investigador en el Sistema de Universidad Virtual de la Universidad de Guadalajara.

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