In early 2020, the first news of an accelerated respiratory virus spreading in China's Wuhan province were met with relative indifference, one that quickly turned into mistrust and stigmatization of Chinese populations living outside China. With the spread of the virus stigmatizing discourses encircled different population segments scapegoated for virus dissemination, with a particular focus, first on the elderly and young people, perceived as less compliant with confinement rules; second, on racialized populations, migrants, refugees or inhabitants of degraded neighbourhoods, already perceived as bearers of unhealthy habits and now as contaminated communities. This paper aims to analyse how the health, political and economic crisis resulting from the pandemic has promoted, in Portugal, a resurgence of hate speech against minorities through the analysis of a set of news that cross the virus and minority populations and the comments made to this news. Resorting to four main newspapers of great circulation (Expresso, Correio da Manhã, Jornal de Notícias e Público) we intend to explore what type of minorities are the preferred target of this discourse, which categories are mobilized, and which narrative patterns and lines are used to promote hate speech. The selection will be carried out through the search engines of the newspapers and extracted, organized and analysed through ParseHub, Maxqda and NodeXL. Specifically, it is expected: (a) to understand what kind of journalistic narratives deal with the links between the pandemic and minority populations and how these narratives influence public opinion and (b) analyze the spaces of commentary as places of interconnectivity of opinions and feelings in order to identify marks and patterns in hate speeches and its variation throughout 2020.

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Covid-19,Hate Speech,Stigmatization,Racism,Online Media