ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Media Governance and the Public Sphere
This article is part of the Research TopicMedia Under Fire: Right-Wing Populist Digital HostilityView all articles
Environmental Journalism and the Struggle Against Disinformation in Brazil: Navigating Digital Hostility and Climate Crisis Coverage
Provisionally accepted
- King's College London, London, United Kingdom
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This study investigates how Brazilian journalists covering socio-environmental issues are affected by disinformation campaigns linked to far-right populism and lobbies opposing environmental protection. Based on in-depth interviews with 14 professionals specializing in environmental reporting, it analyzes how they perceive the digital hostility aimed at delegitimizing journalism and science. Although they do not feel silenced, participants report frustration and difficulties in responding to manipulative narratives. The accounts suggest that environmental coverage has become a field of symbolic dispute, particularly during the Bolsonaro administration, making disinformation a structural problem that affect daily journalistic routines. Strategies such as investigative reporting that expose economic interests, empathetic storytelling and the use of accessible language without falling into partisan disputes are seen as ways to confront this scenario of information disorder.
Keywords: Anti-media movement, Bolsonaro, Brazil, disinformation, Environmental journalism, Right-Wing Populism
Received: 24 Oct 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sarmento. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Claudia Sarmento
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