Impacto da pandemia da Covid-19 no conteúdo dos programas do horário gratuito de propaganda eleitoral de televisão dos candidatos a prefeito da cidade de São Paulo na eleição de 2020

Abstract

This research seeks to describe the impact of the COVID-19 theme on the discourse used to compose the content of electoral propaganda on TV of the Free Electoral Advertising Schedule (HGPE) of the candidates for City Hall of São Paulo in the 2020 election. analyzed the TV programs aired on the HGPE of ten candidates who were entitled to television time for electoral propaganda in the first round and the two competitors who disputed the second round of the election in São Paulo. In all, 59 programs were analyzed in the first shift, broadcast between October 9th and November 12th, 2020, and 14 programs broadcast in the second shift, from November 20th to 27th, 2020. The research was based on Field Theory by Pierre Bourdieu, as a theoretical support, seeking to clarify the argument in which he sees the COVID-19 Pandemic as a social fact that caused several changes in the political field, even constraining its agents to take this theme to the electoral TV programs at HGPE. In the bibliographical review, studies are presented that analyze the evolution of research on HGPE in Brazil, the lines of observation already constructed by several authors, the contribution that electoral TV programs have in the formation of public opinion and the influence of the vote, in addition to presenting the rare studies in the area that address the Pandemic and HGPE. Laurence Bardin's theory of Content Analysis was used to support the entire methodological path, also bringing up-to-date points of view that are specific to the analysis of HGPE in Brazil, such as the one developed by the Research Group on Electoral Communication - CEL, of the Federal University do Paraná, which served as support for the analysis and categorical division of the research. The analysis of all the material demonstrated how the speech construction strategy was, through the HGPE, of each of the candidates, in the first and second rounds. The result shows that only half of the candidates in the first round dealt with the Pandemic theme in their electoral programs. The two candidates who ran in the second round adopted the Pandemic theme in their HGPE programs, with the candidate defeated in the election, Guilherme Boulos, spending almost insignificant time to address the Pandemic. The studies showed that the candidate for re-election for mayor of São Paulo, Bruno Covas, who won the election in 2020, was the one who most used the Pandemic category in the speech released at HGPE, both in the first and second rounds. Having only the HGPE as an observation point for the analysis, it is not possible to categorically state that the fact that Bruno Covas used a greater percentage of time to deal with the Pandemic was decisive for his victory at the polls, but what the study proved was that the candidate for re- election adopted a speech that was more sensitive to a problem that had a strong impact on the daily lives of the population around the world, significantly altering the routine of all humanity, causing a global financial recession, altering the social system and installing a health crisis without precedents.