Inteligência Artificial na Saúde: Uma Análise Crítica do Discurso Noticioso

Juliana Rubini Cini

doi:10.14198/dissoc.30537

Authors

Juliana Rubini Cini Universidade do Minho, Portugal https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9535-1336

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/dissoc.30537

Keywords:

Critical discourse analysis, AI in healthcare, health communication, news discourse, Discourse analysis

Abstract

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of healthcare has already become an established practice in several countries (Lemes & Lemos, 2020) and, in Portugal, has raised ethical and regulatory debates. This article examines how this topic is communicated in three Portuguese news outlets — Renascença, Sábado and Diário de Notícias — drawing on the Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) framework proposed by van Dijk (2001, 2008, 2017) applied to news texts. Communication and the control of discourse constitute a fundamental symbolic resource that underpins the power base of a group or institution through the management of knowledge and information. Members of the most influential social institutions hold control over specific types of public discourse, as is the case of journalists, who act as privileged mediators of information (van Dijk, 2001). From this perspective, the study focuses on the analysis of three news texts with distinct styles: an event report, an opinion article and a promotional news piece. The methodology, grounded in the theoretical foundations of CDS, was developed through analytical grids comprising four dimensions: general analysis (macro and micro levels), context, discursive structures, and language and content. The aim was to understand how the discursive strategies used in news texts about AI in healthcare construct representations that shape public perception of this technology. The findings reveal that the media’s discursive power plays a crucial role in shaping public perception, influencing not only how AI in healthcare is understood but also the processes of its social and institutional legitimation. The study concludes that reality is reshaped within journalistic discourse through the use of discursive strategies aligned with editorial frameworks that shape each outlet’s perspective.

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