“Is it just a little flu”? Producing a news-based counter account on Covid-19 discursive crises in Brazil

Lima, J. P. R., Casa Nova, S. P. C., Sauerbronn, F. F. and Castañeda, M. (2022) “Is it just a little flu”? Producing a news-based counter account on Covid-19 discursive crises in Brazil. Accounting Forum, (doi: 10.1080/01559982.2022.2149441) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

We aim to produce a counter account regarding a discursive crisis in media outlets that, since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, already pointed to the intersection of inequalities with a profound impact on vulnerable and marginalised groups. We draw upon the Sociologies of Absences and Emergences and intersectionality to challenge the truth regime associated with hegemonic accounts by “accounting for” news to contrast hegemonic discourse with a hidden side of socio-political reality. Methodologically, we retrieved 235 news – from March 11th to April 16th, 2020 – from seven Brazilian media vehicles to reveal, through thematic analysis, a discursive crisis with four opposing quadrants. We argue that alternative media had a critical role in highlighting the impacts of what we understand as necropolitical policies by (i) exposing the suffering of those doomed to non-existence in the hegemonic discourse; (ii) amplifying voices undertaken by vulnerable and marginalised people and activities of social groups aiming to resist. Exploring the discursive crisis allowed us to amplify the (re)emergence attempts that fought necropolitics with implications for rethinking the role of accounting in unequal contexts. In conclusion, our counter account revealed how historical inequalities and the growth of neoliberal conservatism sustained a flagrant loss of rights during the pandemic as a gendered and racialised crisis in Brazil. We contribute to the existing literature by connecting accounting’s potential of communicating/constructing realities and the need for alternative accounts based on the Sociologies of Absences and Emergences.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lima, Mr Joao Paulo
• Authors: Lima, J. P. R., Casa Nova, S. P. C., Sauerbronn, F. F., and Castañeda, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
• Journal Name: Accounting Forum
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0155-9982
• ISSN (Online): 1467-6303
• Published Online: 07 December 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Accounting Forum 2022
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License