The periodical press and the 1918 pandemic: news on the behavior of public education during the "spanish flu"

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of the periodical press of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro during the 1918 pandemic flue, as they create a narrative about the disease, showing the changed routine of the urban space during the event and highlighting the role of schools during the period of spread of the disease. In 1918, the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were hit by the "Spanish flu" and, in the face of the pandemic, the newspapers and magazines of the time reported how the organization of public spaces had changed and, among the new social situations, the functioning of public education had been compromised. The news reported that schools were closed, the school year ended early and teachers, who had previously dedicated themselves to imparting general content and personal hygiene, were now working as nurses and butlers in the temporary hospitals that the schools had become. For this work, we used Sontag (1977) to study the forms of representation of the disease and Barros (2023) to understand the characteristics and structures that make up the periodicals while producing news.