Introduction: Global Perspectives on Journalism and the Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over the lives of everyone in the world during the past two years. It has brought about dramatic and sudden changes in the ways we live and work across all realms of society, including in journalism. In this introductory article, we contextualise the special issue on “Global perspectives on journalism and the coronavirus pandemic.” The special issue reflects the rich global diversity of responses and experiences of journalism to the coronavirus pandemic. It encompasses contributions reflecting journalists’ and audiences’ experiences in Belgium, Eastern Europe, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, and the UK. Taken together, the contributions published in this special issue demonstrate the resilience of journalism and its adaptability to change. Yet they also show that if the pandemic constituted a critical moment, it was one which amplified threats to journalism that were already present. But the pandemic also showed the continued importance of journalism, as news organisations furnished audiences with vital information and helped to facilitate cohesion and solidarity. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journalism Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Dark social media participation and well-being.

In recent years, there have been increasing global concerns about the abuse of digital technologies for malicious 'dark participation', the spreading of digital offenses, hate speech, fake news, and conspiracy theories. Clearly, dark participation can have severe effects on the victims and on society at large. However, less is known about the impact of dark participation on the perpetrators' well-being. Preliminary research on the perpetrators indicates positive emotions and specific gratifications resulting from their behavior, in particular when it is fully consistent with their ideologies. Uncovering these gratifications-and the positive effects dark participation may have on perpetrators' well-being-could be the key to a better understanding of the dark side of social media.

COVID-19: Technology, Social Connections, Loneliness, and Leisure Activities: An International Study Protocol.

Drawn from the stress process model, the pandemic has imposed substantial stress to individual economic and mental well-being and has brought unprecedented disruptions to social life. In light of social distancing measures, and in particular physical distancing because of lockdown policies, the use of digital technologies has been regarded as the alternative to maintain economic and social activities. This paper aims to describe the design and implementation of an online survey created as an urgent, international response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey described here responds to the need of understanding the effects of the pandemic on social interactions/relations and to provide findings on the extent to which digital technology is being utilized by citizens across different communities and countries around the world. It also aims to analyze the association of use of digital technologies with psychological well-being and levels of loneliness. The data will be based on the ongoing survey (comprised of several existing and validated instruments on digital use, psychological well-being and loneliness), open for 3 months after roll out (ends September) across 11 countries (Austria, France, Germany, India, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and UK). Participants include residents aged 18 years and older in the countries and snowball sampling is employed via social media platforms. We anticipate that the findings of the survey will provide useful and much needed information on the prevalence of use and intensities of digital technologies among different age groups, gender, socioeconomic groups in a comparative perspective. Moreover, we expect that the future analysis of the data collected will show that different types of digital technologies and intensities of use are associated with psychological well-being and loneliness. To conclude, these findings from the study are expected to bring in our understanding the role of digital technologies in affecting individual social and emotional connections during a crisis.