Rastreando epidemias na web: uma análise do comportamento informacional da sociedade brasileira mediante das epidemias de dengue, chikungunya e zika a partir do método webmétrico

Abstract

This thesis presents a study aimed at understanding Brazilian society's informational behavior through the epidemics of dengue, chikungunya and zika in the years 2016 and 2017. A research of applied nature was carried out, with a quantitative and exploratory approach, using descriptive and inductive method. The overall objective of the study is to understand the informational behavior of Brazilian society in the face of epidemics of dengue, chikungunya and zika. Thus, to achieve this objective, Brazil's Access to Information Law was used as a data collection to collect the reported cases of arboviruses; and the webmetrics method for collecting Google Trends data about web searches on diseases; as well as to collect data from Facebook pages that reported the outbreaks. As a result, an individual and relational analysis of the triad showed the strong relationship between the periods of searching for information on the web about diseases and the similar search for medical help in Brazilian hospitals, as well as showing that societal engagement in the news about arboviruses is stronger in periods close to epidemic peaks, as a way of understanding, discussing and sharing the news published on Facebook. In conclusion, this study raised a concern about the participation of the Internet in the informative process of the Brazilian society, since what is published interferes directly in the life and in the behavior of the people this behavior is fundamental for the understanding and implantation of methods and strategies for public epidemics policies in the country.