The Dynamics of Information-Seeking Repertoires: A Cross-Sectional Latent Class Analysis of Information-Seeking During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT Understanding audiences’ information-seeking behaviors during a societal crisis it vital for effective crisis communication. Prior research has identified how individuals combine information sources during a specific crisis phase. However, there is a lack of studies analyzing the stability of such behavior across phases. Therefore, this study utilizes a four-wave panel study conducted in Sweden (N = 13,718) to examine information-seeking repertoires and potential drivers across phases with different threat severity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from a cross-sectional latent class analysis revealed four main types of information-seeking repertoires: pluralists, traditionalists, minimalists, and news junkies. Specifically, the findings show that individuals with different socio-demographic profiles broaden their information-seeking repertoire when threat severity is high, making socio-demographic factors a poor predictor of repertoire breadth. Instead, mainstream media trust seems to play a more important role as a potential predictor of broad information-seeking repertoires including non-mainstream sources. The dynamic nature of the repertoires cautions scholars not to make generalization about information-seekers and their characteristics across different phases of a crisis and underline the importance of future research to focus on factors beyond socio-demographics.