Práticas informacionais obituárias: a atuação jornalística na plataforma digital “Inumeráveis” na pandemia da Covid-19

Abstract

This research aims to understand how the collaborative work of journalists, associated with digital platforms, is capable of reorganizing and transforming obituary information practices during pandemics, such as Covid-19. The research follows a praxiological epistemological approach, based on contemporary authors linked to the theory of practice, such as Theodore Schatzki. The practical context related to journalists' reporting activities, as well as emerging obituary reporting practices, were examined through semi-structured interviews conducted with some volunteer journalists from the Inumeráveis platform, which was created during the pandemic to provide support to family members and loved ones facing of the countless deaths caused by Covid-19. The analyzed obituary information practices were developed with the aid of the technological resources available in the context of social distancing and, mainly, with the emergence of affection among volunteer journalists, which was strengthened during the collaborative information activities and influenced the construction and existence of the memorial. Emphasis is placed on affective informational practices, which aim at empathy and humanization of victims, as well as informational practices of social bonding, which seek to establish networks of solidarity and collective awareness in favor of the common good. It is concluded that collaborative information activities during the Covid-19 pandemic, linked to digital platforms, contributed to the reorganization and transformation of traditional obituary information practices, since they generated new large-scale shared affections in relation to practical understandings about the narrative of death by journalists.