Creators’ voices and creature’s numbers: the communication of arboviruses on Facebook of the Brazilian Ministry of Health

Abstract

This study analyses the content production about arboviruses on the fan page of the Brazilian Ministry of Health before, during and after the Zika virus epidemic. It uses a mixed methods study that comprises the content analysis released from 2015 to 2017 and the Collective Subject Discourse of the workers who produced the contents. The results show that 649 out of 5,732 posts collected addressed arboviruses, with a greater focus on prevention and Zika. The Brazilian National Health System (SUS) was found in a small part of the sample. There is a concern to inform about health with quality, but differences in the specialist’s language and timing between what is published online and what is conveyed to technical health services cause communication noise. It is a transmissional discourse, with no dialogue with the population, underestimating the potential of social media for interaction, sharing and engagement.