(Pseudo) science and the public sphere

Abstract

The study analyzes publications on Twitter that claim scientific status in order to bring forth arguments of authority in messages regarding Covid-19, including the adhesion or criticism of protective measures, the application or non-application of vaccines, degree of danger of the virus, among others. The 3.3 million posts that compose the corpus of the research were published between January and May 2021. Of the four identified clusters, the one that garnered the most engagement mainly dealt with the defense of early treatment and was positioned in the right-wing conservative field in alignment with the government of Jair Bolsonaro. The other three clusters reacted to this, including health professionals, sanitary authorities, epidemiologists, journalists, as well as progressive and left-wing influencers. In the group aligned with the government, the longevity of links that resort to science in order to argue about Covid-19 was 150% higher than in the other three clusters identified, which indicates that, despite not always grounding themselves in scientific parameters in order to base their arguments, the right-wing conservative cluster explores the status of science in order to defend their point of view.