Fiocruz News Agency receives new science journalism award on its 20th anniversary

For the third consecutive year, Fiocruz News Agency (AFN), published by the Social Communication Coordination (CCS) of the Foundation's Presidency, was honored with the Einstein Most Admired in Health, Science, and Wellbeing Award, promoted by the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in partnership with the website Jornalistas&Cia. The award, in the category Specialized Outlet in Science Journalism, was granted on Monday (11/4) and is the third in a row that AFN has received. In 2023, the Agency was awarded in the same category and, in 2022, it was among the three Most Admired in Health, Science and Wellbeing agencies. The award celebrates the outlet's two decades of existence, since it was in 2004 that the former CCS website became the Fiocruz News Agency and a reference in science journalism.

"Qualified health information can transform lives and Fiocruz's Coordination of Social Communication plays a key role in public communication and in defending the SUS [the Brazilian Unified Health System] and Brazilian science," says journalist and CCS/Fiocruz coordinator Pamela Lang, who attended the AFN award ceremony. "Receiving this nomination for three consecutive years is a reflection of consistent work, carried out daily by a team committed to disseminating science and bringing information to the Brazilian population, showing what is done at Fiocruz." 

CCS/Fiocruz coordinator, Pamela Lang, attended the event that awarded the AFN (photo: Portal dos Jornalistas)

The award crowns AFN's work over the past two decades in publicizing Fiocruz's research, programs and actions, reflecting the plurality that is the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which is present in ten states and the Federal District and has an office in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. This diversity is updated daily on the website's pages by its editors and reporters, who produce exclusive content based on the public interest.

Revealing to the Brazilian population and the press what is being developed at the Foundation in the areas of health and science has been AFN's primary mission. On average, the site publishes around 1,100 pieces of content a year. This content includes reports, interviews, book reviews, podcasts, opinion articles and texts that recount important moments in the history of Fiocruz and Brazilian health and science, consulted every day by journalists, managers, researchers, students and citizens in general.

On average, 1.7 million AFN pages are viewed per year – a figure that reached 3.3 million in 2020, when the pandemic began and the site broke access records by publishing qualified texts on COVID-19. That year, when the health crisis began, the number of users, which was around 600,000, reached 1.3 million. The AFN Bulletin, which brings together the main news published in the Agency during the week and is sent out every Friday, has been growing steadily. In 2014, the year it was launched, it had around 400 subscribers, a number that has increased fivefold and currently stands at 2,000, mostly journalists. The Bulletin has around 50 issues a year, which provides subscribers with an average of 480 suggestions for topics each year. 

For the third consecutive year, the Fiocruz News Agency (AFN) receives the Einstein +Admired Award in Health, Science, and Well-being Press (photo: Luciano Simplicio)

AFN's recognition is not recent. In 2011, Folha de S. Paulo cited the outlet in the category Research and Reference Institutions that Offer Reliable Information. And for two years in a row (2020 and 2021), a study carried out by the Science Pulse project and the Brazilian Institute for Research and Data Analysis (IBPAD) attested that AFN was one of the main voices of science on Twitter (now X). In 2020, AFN came third in the popularity criterion.

In 2021, the analysis highlighted that conversations and debates about the COVID-19 pandemic among Brazilian researchers and scientists on Twitter / X were marked by collaboration and the construction of common knowledge – which differentiated the Brazilian network from the international scenario. The study suggested that collaborative construction took place through a high number of responses, mentions and retweets, especially from the 15 most influential profiles on the disease, the virus and the vaccine. Among these profiles was that of AFN (@agencia_fiocruz), which now has 266,000 followers. Science Pulse is a monitoring tool for more than 1.5 million profiles of Brazilian scientists, researchers, organizations and science communicators on Twitter / X .

The editors

In its 20 years of existence, AFN has had three editors: journalists Ricardo Valverde, Renata Moehlecke and César Guerra Chevrand. They are unanimous in emphasizing the importance and satisfaction of having held the position.

"The website's recognition is not recent, but the possibility of celebrating this award for the third consecutive year gives us the certainty, despite all challenges encountered in the dissemination of science in Brazil, that we are doing quality work," says AFN's current editor, Renata Moehlecke, who has been in the position for just over a decade. "On AFN, Internet users can find the latest news on Fiocruz research, programs and actions every day. The collective effort made on a daily basis by Fiocruz's Social Communication Coordination and other departments in the Foundation's various units makes the Agency one of the main gateways to the institution on the web. In this space, journalists and other users seeking quality information about Fiocruz are guaranteed access and this right of any citizen".

According to Valverde, the first editor, who also edited the old CCS/Fiocruz website, "having participated in the development of AFN from the beginning, 20 years ago, when it was just an idea, is a fact that honors me greatly as a journalist. In these two decades, I have written, proofread and edited countless texts, participated in coverage and conducted numerous interviews. For AFN I went to Amazonas, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Paraná and the Federal District to produce reports. I spent 11 years in charge of the CCS website and the Agency, from 2002 to 2013, when I became editor of Revista de Manguinhos, and this experience, in addition to the importance of having contributed to bringing quality information to Brazilian society, has an incalculable professional and personal value. The immense volume of positive news generated by this powerhouse that is Fiocruz represents a milestone for science journalism and a joy for those who have the pleasure of publishing it. I would also like to thank the many professionals who have worked at the CCS and Fiocruz units and who have contributed with texts and images to make AFN the success it is today."

For Chevrand, "the Fiocruz News Agency has consolidated itself over the years as Fiocruz's most powerful and important communication channel. In its two decades of history, and to this day, it has made an invaluable contribution to SUS communication and to Brazilian public health. It has been an honor to have been editor of the site for three years, in partnership with journalist and editor Renata Moehlecke, who has worked so hard and shone for AFN throughout this time. I remember with great pride the effort we made to expand AFN's reach and relevance, both inside and outside the Foundation. The mission continues. Here's to another 20 years of success!" Chevrand, currently at Oswaldo Cruz House (COC/Fiocruz), was an editor at AFN between 2014 and 2017.