A COBERTURA CIBERJORNALÍSTICA DE ACIDENTES AÉREOS: ESTUDO DE CASO DO VOEPASS 2283

Abstract

This research investigates the cyberjournalistic coverage of air accidents, ocusing on the impact of immediacy on the quality of information in crisis contexts. It is a study based on bibliographic research, content analysis, and interviews with specialists, which seeks to understand how news, informational flows, and technological mediations influence the construction of journalistic narratives in air disasters, assessing the relationship between accuracy, credibility, and the spectacularization of tragedy. The case study focuses on the crash of VOEPASS flight 2283, which occurred in August 2024 in the interior of São Paulo, an event that claimed the lives of all its occupants and received wide national repercussion. The theoretical framework mobilizes concepts such as mediacentrism, dromocracy, cyberculture, news quality, and agenda-setting theory, in addition to contributions from central authors in the debate on cyberjournalism, sources, and expert systems, including McLuhan, Castells, Virilio, Trivinho, Canavilhas, Pavlik, Sodré, Soley, and Gans. The research adopted a mixed-methods approach, predominantly qualitative, supported by the triangulation of bibliographic review, collection of news reports published in the seven days following the accident and at the time of release of the preliminary report, and two interviews — with the head of the Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (CENIPA) and with a journalism researcher. The qualitative analysis focused on three axes: the initial divergence in the disclosure of the number of victims, the selection and use of information sources, and the credibility attributed to the expert system. The findings indicate that immediacy undermines validation and favors the dissemination of inaccurate information, fostering fragmented and sometimes contradictory narratives. The study also identified a tendency toward spectacularization, which turns tragedy into a media spectacle and blurs the boundary between information of public interest and the emotional exploitation of the event. It was observed that journalism, while expanding access and diversifying dissemination channels, operates in an environment marked by competition with citizen journalists, the influence of distribution algorithms, and economic pressure for engagement — factors that intensify the risks of disinformation. Cyberjournalism, in its condition as the dominant form of informative practice, must adopt strategies that reconcile speed and verification, reaffirming credibility as a central value. This dissertation contributes to the field of Communication by offering a critical reading of the limits and potentialities of cyberjournalism in the face of disruptive events, highlighting the importance of practices grounded in ethics, informational curation, and the enhancement of news quality.