Abstract
During a pandemic, news media play a crucial role in communicating public health and policy information. Traditional newspaper coverage is important amidst increasing disinformation, yet uncertainties make covering health risks and efforts to limit transmission difficult. This study assesses print and online newspaper coverage of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 for March 2020, when the global pandemic was declared, through August 2020 in three countries: Canada (with the lowest per-capita case and death rates during the study timeframe), the United Kingdom (with a pronounced early spike), and the United States (with persistently high rates). Tools previously validated for pandemic-related news records allow measurement of multiple indicators of scientific quality (i.e., reporting that reflects the state of scientific knowledge) and of sensationalism (i.e., strategies rendering news as more extraordinary than it really is). COVID-19 reporting had moderate scientific quality and low sensationalism across 1331 sampled articles in twelve newspapers spanning the political spectrums of the three countries. Newspapers oriented towards the populist-right had the lowest scientific quality in reporting, combined with very low sensationalism in some cases. Against a backdrop of world-leading disease rates, U.S. newspapers on the political left had more exposing coverage, e.g., focused on policy failures or misinformation, and more warning coverage, e.g., focused on the risks of the disease, compared to U.S. newspapers on the political right. Despite the generally assumed benefits of low sensationalism, pandemic-related coverage with low scientific quality that also failed to alert readers to public-health risks, misinformation, or policy failures may have exacerbated the public-health effects of the disease. Such complexities will likely remain central for both pandemic news media reporting and public-health strategies reliant upon it.
Highlights
News media reporting is understood to play a central role during national security and health emergencies (Laing, 2011; Klemm et al, 2016; Pieri, 2019)
The studied news outlets differed in the amount of news media coverage related to COVID-19 from 1 March through 15 August 2020 (Fig. 2)
News media play a central role in communicating public health and policy information, establishing accountability for decision-making, and shaping public perceptions through the number of news reports, their content, and their tone (Klemm et al, 2016; Reintjes et al, 2016)
Summary
News media reporting is understood to play a central role during national security and health emergencies (Laing, 2011; Klemm et al, 2016; Pieri, 2019). Pandemic policy-making requires rapid, iterative responses under conditions of knowledge deficit, as well as the coordination of multi-level public-health agencies and sectors (e.g., hospitals, schools, and workplaces) (Laing, 2011; Rosella et al, 2013). In these complex circumstances, news media serve as a primary source of health information and uncertainties and connect health professionals, policymakers, and the public in critical ways (Laing, 2011; Hoffman and Justicz, 2016). The quality and balance of scientific coverage, such as through reporting that reflects the state of scientific knowledge and is not overstated, affect trust in science and accountability for decision-making (Laing, 2011; Klemm et al, 2016; Hoffman and Justicz, 2016)
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