Ada C. Machado da Silveira 70 coverage has led to a social perception of the need for urgent measures in favor of legitimizing coercive government respons- es that are adopted to the detriment of others. Prior to the event in Rio de Janeiro, the newspaper O Globo, owned by the same media group, in its coverage of the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) between the years 2008 and 2016, increased its focus on issues related to crime and violence, at the expense of others. Pereira’s analysis (2020, p. 383) found that “the coverage acted in the discursive legitimization of the UPPs, in the sense that it highlighted their positive aspects, obscured the negative ones and privileged statements by state agents, thus justifying to its audience their adverse effects.” In later years, the democratic erosion during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency indicates a path towards autocratization, an emerging phenomenon globally. The substantive decline of dem- ocratic attributes occurs through strategies such as attempts at political-ideological control, historical-scientific revisionism, at- tacks on academic freedom, as well as on civil associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in addition to inciting moral panic. The moral panic of informational sources focuses on the various disinformation practices. The daily lives of Brazil- ians, permeated by physical, financial and political insecurities, fueled by alarmist and frightening information, may be at the root of the widespread consumption of social media. Thus, in a context where dubious information abounds, news activity faces the challenge of seeking new parameters that legitimize it, espe- cially when it is carried out professionally. The proliferation of platforms will require content classification work, which is still difficult, given its variety and diversity. 5. Final remarks Mediatization is an approach that allows us to study the profound socio-technical impact on communication. In Brazil, the exhaustion of newsworthiness stemmed from the shielding of issues of great public interest and the consequent repetition of frivolous topics or those outside the broad scope of society. Media communication activity, with journalism as its great op-
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