As ações do governo do Tocantins no combate à pandemia da Covid-19: da prevenção ao personalismo

Abstract

This study analyzes the character of the official message adopted by the Government of Tocantins regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, from the perspective of public communication, using the releases issued by the State Secretariat of Communication (Secom) from March 11 to December 31, 2020. In its theoretical foundation, it discusses the formation of the Crisis Committee, responsible for decisions related to the health crisis; it addresses public communication, and discusses the role of the State in society, symbolic power, primitive forms of classification, and relational thinking. In addition, it surveys studies that investigate how federal, state, and municipal governments dealt with the pandemic. The research also explores the environment of Secom, showing its history and attributions. The methodology uses content analysis to select and classify, into 16 categories, the 463 releases about the health crisis. After filtering the results, it was found that the majority of the content had a personalistic, preventive, and institutional character. The result corroborates the hypothesis presented, which suggested a profile of more exaltation of the image of the managers than of the institutions. The texts of preventive character stem from the need of the Government of Tocantins to adopt measures to contain the spread of the new Coronavirus. The dissemination of clear and precise information is fundamental to dialogue with the population and ensure adherence to the measures adopted, thus making transparent, cohesive, ethical, impersonal, and citizen-focused public communication.