Abstract
ABSTRACT During the coronavirus pandemic, conspiracy theories and dubious health guidance about COVID-19 led to public debates about the role and impact of blatant acts of disinformation. But less attention has been paid to the broader media environment, which is how most people understood the crisis and how it was handled by different governments. Drawing on a news diary study of 200 participants during the pandemic, we found they easily identified examples of “fake news” but were less aware of relevant facts that might help them understand how the UK government managed the crisis. Our content analysis of 1259 television news items revealed broadcasters did not routinely draw on statistics to contextualise the UK’s record of managing the coronavirus or regularly make comparisons with other countries. Given television news bulletins were the dominant news source for many people in the UK, we suggest the information environment gave audiences limited opportunities to understand the government’s performance internationally. We argue that misinformation is often a symptom of editorial choices in media coverage—including television news produced by public service broadcasters—that can lead to gaps in public knowledge. We conclude by suggesting the concept of the information environment should play a more prominent role in studies that explore the causes of misinformation.
Highlights
During the coronavirus pandemic, there were heightened concerns about false or misleading information (Poynter 2020)
In debates about the communication of the coronavirus pandemic, the media have often centred their attention on conspiracy theories, such as the belief that the virus originated in a lab, or blatant acts of disinformation including myths about home remedies that can cure the disease (Mian and Khan 2020)
The media focus on the circulation of so-called “fake news” and conspiracy theories about the pandemic represents a continuation of existing debates about the dangers of either misinformation and disinformation, and their persuasive effects on public behaviour
Summary
There were heightened concerns about false or misleading information (Poynter 2020). In debates about the communication of the coronavirus pandemic, the media have often centred their attention on conspiracy theories, such as the belief that the virus originated in a lab, or blatant acts of disinformation including myths about home remedies that can cure the disease (Mian and Khan 2020) Popular among these theories has been the claim that 5G technology is responsible for the transmission of the disease, which in the UK led to arson attacks on cell phone towers in April 2020 (Hamilton 2020). The media focus on the circulation of so-called “fake news” and conspiracy theories about the pandemic represents a continuation of existing debates about the dangers of either misinformation and disinformation, and their persuasive effects on public behaviour This preoccupation with “fake news”, spread either by political figures or through social media, is justifiable in the context of “post-truth” politics, whereby fake information can dominate electoral campaigns and political debate. Put more longstanding structural conditions of journalism can allow misinformation and disinformation to thrive, rather than it being entirely driven by pernicious online or social media networks
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