Mainstream Media
The mainstream media tend to rely on news content that will increase risk perceptions of pandemic outbreaks to stimulate public response and persuade people to comply with preventive behaviours. The objective of this study was to examine associations between exposure to coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) news, risk perceptions, and depressive symptoms.
Perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 can serve as a pathway through which exposure to COVID‐19 news on mainstream media may be associated with depressive symptoms.
Keywords: COVID‐19, depression, mainstream media, risk perception
Mainstream media use the elements of elevated risk perception to steer public response during pandemic outbreaks.
Frequent exposure to risk‐framed news is positively associated with risk perception.
Risk perception is positively associated with psychosocial distress.
Frequent exposure to coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) news on mainstream media is positively associated with depressive symptoms.
Perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 mediates the relationship between exposure to COVID‐19 news and depressive symptoms.
Perceived self‐efficacy to practice protective behaviour is positively associated with news exposure and negatively associated with depressive symptoms.These alarming estimations have triggered emergency preparedness efforts and public awareness through the swift dissemination of risk‐framed information in the mainstream media.
CNN interviewed recovering COVID‐19 patients who described their perceived vulnerability, severity, and experiences with the disease. However, frequent exposure to risk‐framed news may negatively impact the viewers' mental health . Therefore, it is important to investigate the mental health consequence of exposure to pandemic news on mainstream media.
Within January 2020, the first full month in which the outbreak was known, Time recorded 41,000 English-language articles containing the term "coronavirus", of which 19,000 made it to headlines. This was compared with the Kivu Ebola epidemic, which had 1,800 articles and 700 headlines in August 2018. Paul Levinson, a researcher in communications and media studies, attributed this wide disparity to backlash from perceived overcoverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, coupled with concerns regarding Chinese censorship of the coverage
The first confirmed case in the UK, as reported by GOV.UK , was January 30, 2020.In reporting about the outbreak, British tabloid newspapers such as The Sun and the Daily Mail used language described as "fear-inducing". According to Edelman's Trust Barometer, journalists were the least-trusted source for information regarding the pandemic in the UK, with 43 percent out of the surveyed trusting them to report the truth, behind government officials (48%) and "most-affected countries" (46%). This was despite conventional media being the primary source of information regarding the pandemic in the UK.
A study conducted in May 2020 in association with the University of Oxford showed that the UK public is exhibiting declining trust in the government as a source of information. Only 48% rated the government relatively trustworthy, which is down from 67% six weeks earlier. Moreover, 38% of people are stating that they are concerned false or misleading coronavirus information from the government, a figure which was only 27% six weeks earlier.
Perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 can serve as a pathway through which exposure to COVID‐19 news on mainstream media may be associated with depressive symptoms.
Keywords: COVID‐19, depression, mainstream media, risk perception
Mainstream media use the elements of elevated risk perception to steer public response during pandemic outbreaks.
Frequent exposure to risk‐framed news is positively associated with risk perception.
Risk perception is positively associated with psychosocial distress.
Frequent exposure to coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) news on mainstream media is positively associated with depressive symptoms.
Perceived vulnerability to COVID‐19 mediates the relationship between exposure to COVID‐19 news and depressive symptoms.
Perceived self‐efficacy to practice protective behaviour is positively associated with news exposure and negatively associated with depressive symptoms.These alarming estimations have triggered emergency preparedness efforts and public awareness through the swift dissemination of risk‐framed information in the mainstream media.
CNN interviewed recovering COVID‐19 patients who described their perceived vulnerability, severity, and experiences with the disease. However, frequent exposure to risk‐framed news may negatively impact the viewers' mental health . Therefore, it is important to investigate the mental health consequence of exposure to pandemic news on mainstream media.
Perceived vulnerability mediated the relationship between exposure to COVID‐19 news on the mainstream media and depressive symptoms. In addition to providing information about the vulnerability to COVID‐19, mainstream media outlets should offer contents that will reduce their viewers’ mental health burden at this critical time.
Note: Study Link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267047/
Note: Study Link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267047/
Within January 2020, the first full month in which the outbreak was known, Time recorded 41,000 English-language articles containing the term "coronavirus", of which 19,000 made it to headlines. This was compared with the Kivu Ebola epidemic, which had 1,800 articles and 700 headlines in August 2018. Paul Levinson, a researcher in communications and media studies, attributed this wide disparity to backlash from perceived overcoverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, coupled with concerns regarding Chinese censorship of the coverage
The first confirmed case in the UK, as reported by GOV.UK , was January 30, 2020.In reporting about the outbreak, British tabloid newspapers such as The Sun and the Daily Mail used language described as "fear-inducing". According to Edelman's Trust Barometer, journalists were the least-trusted source for information regarding the pandemic in the UK, with 43 percent out of the surveyed trusting them to report the truth, behind government officials (48%) and "most-affected countries" (46%). This was despite conventional media being the primary source of information regarding the pandemic in the UK.
A study conducted in May 2020 in association with the University of Oxford showed that the UK public is exhibiting declining trust in the government as a source of information. Only 48% rated the government relatively trustworthy, which is down from 67% six weeks earlier. Moreover, 38% of people are stating that they are concerned false or misleading coronavirus information from the government, a figure which was only 27% six weeks earlier.
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