Stronger than partisanship and motivated reasoning: news exposure and news frames predicting US state-level preventive behaviours against COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a partisan issue rather than an independent public health issue in the US. This study examined the behavioural consequences of motivated reasoning and framing by investigating the impacts of COVID-19 news exposure and news frames, as apparent through a Latent Dirichlet topic modelling analysis of local news coverage, on state-level preventive behaviours as understood through a nationally representative survey. Findings suggested that the media effects on various preventive behaviours differed. The overall exposure rate to all COVID-19 news articles increased mask-wearing but did not significantly impact other preventive behaviours. Four news frames significantly increased avoiding contact or avoiding public or crowded places. However, news articles discussing anxiety and stay at home order triggered resistance and countereffects and led to risky behaviours. ‘Solid Republican' state residents were less likely to avoid contact, avoid public or crowded places, and wear masks. However, partisan leanings did not interfere with the impact of differing local COVID-19 news frames on reported preventive behaviours. Plus, statements regarding pre-existing trust in Trump did not correlate with reported preventive behaviour. Attention to effect sizes revealed that news exposure and news frames could have a bigger impact on health behaviours than motivated reasoning.

No jab, no international travel? Linking TRA, mass media, motivation, and experience

Despite mixed emotions about COVID-19 vaccination as a precondition for international travel, COVID-19 vaccination is being advocated as one of the instruments that could facilitate safe free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the purpose of the present research is to distinguish the underlying mechanisms that could predict individuals' intentions to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a precondition for international travel. The conceptual framework was built on the extended theory of reasoned action (TRA), which incorporates mass media coverage, travel motivations, and previous travel experience. An online purposive sampling technique was utilized in this study, and 1188 responses were collected. Subsequently, structural equation modeling was utilized to test the proposed model. The originality of the present study lies with unraveling the mechanisms that affect the intention to take the COVID-19 vaccine as a precondition for international travel. In addition, the discussions are presented in subsequent sections of the paper.

Flipping the Frame: How Rudy Gobert Went From an Episodic Bad Actor to a Thematic Hero

Rudy Gobert's positive COVID-19 diagnosis in March of 2020 started the process that led to American sports shutting down in the early days of the pandemic. After the diagnosis, video of him touching reporters' voice recorders at a press availability went viral. This framing analysis in five mainstream newspapers finds that over the course of 72 hours, Gobert went from a bad actor to a hero in news copy as an episodic frame focusing on his actions gave way to a thematic frame about the virus and its effects on the country.

The semiotics of the anti-COVID-19 mask

The pandemic spreading of the COVID-19 virus has led to the global need to introduce, often by law, the medical face mask, which can undoubtedly be considered as "the object of 2020.” In a few months, most human faces around the world in the public space, but also often in the private space, have been covered with various kinds of protective masks. Very soon, these objects have become the centre of several discursive productions, going from medical reports to media coverage, from artistic representations to ironic memes. The medical face mask was not totally new in the west, where it was already present in special circumstances, like dentists' studios or emergency rooms, and was quite familiar in the east, especially in Japan, China, and Korea. Yet such massive introduction changed the meaning of the medical face mask in every context. Old habits were reconfigured or clashed with the new ones, giving rise to a novel syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of the human face in conjunction with this device and in the context of the global pandemic. The present paper offers an introduction to a semiotic mapping of such radical cultural change and its likely consequences.

The Covid-19 pandemic in canadian newspapers: An analysis of the journalistic articles as risk and crisis messages

This chapter contributes to the scholarly literature in crisis communication by emphasizing on the media coverage of the first three months of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canadian newspapers. Indeed, described as a health, social, and economic crisis, Covid-19 swiftly plunged the world into a state of crisis. Media coverage of the pandemic contributes to crisis communication, by attempting to make sense of the new coronavirus and its many impacts on global order. Thanks to an innovative methodological approach, we analyzed the journalistic coverage through a simultaneous tripartite process of staging the protagonists (Who?), selecting different facets of social reality (What?), and positioning with respect to professional ideals (How?). © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

Editors' Note

Returning to the world prior to March 2020, though, is perhaps more of a return to a status quo in which those occupying positions of privilege and power—particularly in the Global North—shift focus back to the conventional news cycle. Aside from early reporting on COVID-19, former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial and reactions to the United States' assassination mission of Qasem Soleimani dominated headlines in early 2020. [...]we cannot return to holding that level of unconcern for similar violence in the United States towards historically marginalized communities like Black and Indigenous People of Color.

Countering Beijing's Media Manipulation

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long sought to influence media coverage about China in other countries. Over the past decade, this campaign has accelerated, reaching new world regions and topics. This article examines how CCP-linked actors seek to manipulate foreign information environments in four key ways: disseminating propaganda, spreading disinformation, censoring critical coverage, and controlling the infrastructure used to convey news. This article considers which efforts have yielded gains for the regime, obstacles that Beijing has encountered, and the response of nongovernmental actors. It concludes by considering how to enhance democratic resilience to the covert and coercive dimensions of the CCP's global media influence.

The effects of media reports during the COVID-19 pandemic on (prospective) teachers: An experimental study on the experience of appreciation and metastereotypes

Usually, teachers and their work performance are often the subject of media coverage, ranging from positive examples to critical judgements. Accordingly, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was also controversial reporting on how teachers met the new challenges. The present study experimentally investigates the effects of media coverage on ( prospective) teachers' perceived professional recognition and activation of their metastereotypical perceptions. Respondents (N = 211) were randomly confronted with critical or positive articles from the print media or assigned to a control group before metastereotypes and perceived recognition were assessed. After being confronted with the critical articles, teachers stated that they felt perceived as less competent by society. The professional perception of recognition was also lower than for the group that had dealt with positive articles. In contrast, student teachers' reports didn't show any significant differences between the experimental conditions. In the discussion, the findings and their implications are considered.

How Life During a Pandemic May Have Contributed to Homicide in Houston, Texas

This study offers an examination of a sample of 150 homicides in Houston, Texas in 2020 as described by local news sources. The purpose was to understand dynamics that may explain what appears to be an increase in domestic disputes that led to increases in homicides. This mixed method study utilized content analysis that included quantifying the patterns of concepts in the news reports to isolate racial, gender and location factors. Data are displayed in tables and figures to illustrate patterns and regression analyses indicate predictive relations. The study is important given the recent homicide increases during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the substantial impact on families and communities. The data reveal that domestic disputes and access to firearms are evident in the increases. The study offers implications for micro and macro responses involving media coverage, interpersonal communication, community programming and messaging, law enforcement engagement, and justice system reforms.Key Take Away Points [list] [list] [list_item] increase in homicide during COVID-19 [/list_item] [list_item] decrease in police presence [/list_item] [list_item] majority of homicides are caused by guns [/list_item] [/list]

The Financial Impact of COVID-19 from the Perspective of Media Coverage: Evidence from China

This paper merges three textual models to construct a series of indicators, which can yield more refined proxies for financial media coverage, to measure the impacts of COVID-19 on Chinese financial markets. Results show that the basic indicator Granger causes the volatilities of bond and stock markets and contributes more to the stock market after the outbreak of COVID-19. Next, four specific market-related indicators have significant effects on the corresponding financial market after the outbreak. Finally, the policy-related indicator has a significant effect on four financial markets after the outbreak, and it causes greater volatility in the stock market. This paper can help the government to stabilize the financial market by managing financial media attention. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Fighting disinformation through source management: a comparison between journalistic models in the context of COVID-19

Introducción: La "pandemia" de la desinformación ha marcado la cobertura periodística del COVID-19, por lo que resulta de interés ver cómo diferentes modelos periodísticos han empleado la gestión de fuentes como criterio de calidad para hacerle frente. Metodología: El presente trabajo analiza las fuentes periodísticas - desde los indicadores de número, identificación y tipologíaempleadas en 420 artículos sobre la cobertura del COVID-19 correspondientes a cuatro modelos profesionales periodísticos: prensa tradicional, medios nativos digitales, prensa popular y plataformas de verificación. Resultados: El análisis refleja una adecuada gestión por parte de la prensa española de las fuentes durante la cobertura de la pandemia, utilizando de forma mayoritaria un número de fuentes superior al estándar;identificándolas correctamente en la práctica totalidad de casos;y empleando una adecuada variedad. Así, pese al claro predominio de las fuentes oficiales, se da también una presencia notable de fuentes expertas de los ámbitos científico y sanitario. Discusión y conclusiones: La calidad en la gestión de fuentes ha contribuido a hacer frente a la desinformación por parte de la prensa española, si bien se detectan importantes diferencias entre modelos profesionales. Las plataformas de verificación son las que presentan unos estándares de calidad más elevados a la hora de gestionar sus fuentes informativas, lo que contribuye a reforzar criterios claves en la lucha contra la desinformación como son verificación, relevancia, credibilidad y transparencia.Alternate :Introduction: The pandemic of misinformation has shaped the journalistic coverage of COVID-19, so it is interesting to see how different journalistic models have used source management as a quality criterion to address it. Methodology: This paper analyses the journalistic sources - from the indicators of number, identification and typology - used in 420 articles on the coverage of COVID-19 corresponding to four journalistic professional models: traditional press, digital native media, popular press and verification platforms. Results: The analysis reflects an adequate management of sources by the Spanish press during the coverage of the pandemic, mostly using a higher than standard number of sources;identifying them correctly in almost all cases;and using an adequate variety. Therefore, despite the clear predominance of official sources, there is also a notable presence of expert sources from the scientific and health fields. Discussion and conclusions: The quality of source management has contributed to fighting disinformation in the Spanish press, although there are important differences between professional models. Verification platforms are those with the highest quality standards when managing their information sources, which helps to reinforce key criteria in the fight against disinformation, such as verification, relevance, credibility and transparency.

Decoupling Between the Energy and Semiconductor Sectors During the Pandemic: New Evidence from Wavelet Analysis

We study the impact of COVID-19 on the pairwise dependence between three indices, the COVID-19 Media Coverage Index, MSCI World Semiconductor Index, and the MSCI World Energy Index, as well as investigate the respective volatility spillovers. We find intervals of weak, moderate, and strong coherence between the Media Coverage Index and returns and volatility of semiconductor and energy sector companies. Low coherence intervals indicate a diversification potential of investments in these sectors and in their volatility-based products during periods of systemic crises such as the financial turmoil induced by COVID-19. Our results provide evidence that after the escalation of the pandemic in early 2020, the energy sector cedes its leading role in terms of volatility to the semiconductor industry. We report on appealing hedging attributes related to the decoupling between the trends in the global semiconductor industry and the global energy sector accelerated by the COVID-19 triggered crisis.

Name Entity Recognition on Covid-19 Dataset using Machine Learning algorithms

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by such an explosive increase in media coverage and scientific publications that researchers find it difficult to keep up. So we are working on COVID-19 dataset on Omicron variant to recognise the name entity from a given text. We collect the COVID related data from newspaper or from tweets. This article covered the name entity like COVID variant name, organization name and location name, vaccine name. It include tokenisation, POS tagging, Chunking, levelling, editing and for run the program. It will help us to recognise the name entity like where the COVID spread (location) most, which variant spread most (variant name), which vaccine has been given (vaccine name) from huge dataset. In this work, we have identified the names. If we assume unemployment, economic downfall, death, recovery, depression, as a topic we can identify the topic names also, and in which phase it occurred. © 2022 IEEE.

Modeling COVID-19 transmission dynamics incorporating media coverage and vaccination.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread concern around the world. In order to study the impact of media coverage and vaccination on the spread of COVID-19, we establish an SVEAIQR infectious disease model, and fit the important parameters such as transmission rate, isolation rate and vaccine efficiency based on the data from Shanghai Municipal Health Commission and the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. Meanwhile, the control reproduction number and the final size are derived. Moreover, through sensitivity analysis by PRCC (partial rank correlation coefficient), we discuss the effects of both the behavior change constant $ k $ according to media coverage and the vaccine efficiency $ \varepsilon $ on the transmission of COVID-19. Numerical explorations of the model suggest that during the outbreak of the epidemic, media coverage can reduce the final size by about 0.26 times. Besides that, comparing with $ 50\% $ vaccine efficiency, when the vaccine efficiency reaches $ 90\% $, the peak value of infected people decreases by about 0.07 times. In addition, we simulate the impact of media coverage on the number of infected people in the case of vaccination or non-vaccination. Accordingly, the management departments should pay attention to the impact of vaccination and media coverage.

COVID-19 and its short-term informational impact on the stock markets of the Pacific Alliance countries.

The processes of localisation and investment optimisation present a challenge when it comes to emerging markets. The phenomena of low diversification and efficiency in some economies do not allow structurers to adequately visualize the dynamics and risks involved. This article aims to establish, by means of a recursive VAR, the transitive impacts that exist between the stock markets of the countries that make up the Pacific Alliance: Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The findings show that Mexico and Chile are the markets with the greatest depth and liquidity and are therefore the first to react to a random and exogenous shock such as the one caused by the informational impact of COVID-19, while the markets of Colombia and Peru experience a high degree of dependence on the impacts caused in the markets of countries with higher levels of efficiency and depth. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43546-023-00469-6.

Agenda-Setting for COVID-19: A Study of Large-Scale Economic News Coverage Using Natural Language Processing.

Over the past two years, organizations and businesses have been forced to constantly adapt and develop effective responses to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The acuteness, global scale and intense dynamism of the situation make online news and information even more important for making informed management and policy decisions. This paper focuses on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, using natural language processing (NLP) techniques to examine the news media as the main source of information and agenda-setters of public discourse over an eight-month period. The aim of this study is to understand which economic topics news media focused on alongside the dominant health coverage, which topics did not surface, and how these topics influenced each other and evolved over time and space. To this end, we used an extensive open-source dataset of over 350,000 media articles on non-medical aspects of COVID-19 retrieved from over 60 top-tier business blogs and news sites. We referred to the World Economic Forum's Strategic Intelligence taxonomy to categorize the articles into a variety of topics. In doing so, we found that in the early days of COVID-19, the news media focused predominantly on reporting new cases, which tended to overshadow other topics, such as the economic impact of the virus. Different independent news sources reported on the same topics, showing a herd behavior of the news media during this global health crisis. However, a temporal analysis of news distribution in relation to its geographic focus showed that the rise in COVID-19 cases was associated with an increase in media coverage of relevant socio-economic topics. This research helps prepare for the prevention of social and economic crises when decision-makers closely monitor news coverage of viruses and related topics in other parts of the world. Thus, monitoring the news landscape on a global scale can support decision-making in social and economic crises. Our analyses point to ways in which this monitoring and issues management can be improved to remain alert to social dynamics and market changes.

Comparing media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry: pre- and post-pandemic lockdown

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry before and after the COVID-19 lockdown to determine whether the coverage changed in light of a global health-care crisis and the fast-track development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.Design/methodology/approachThe top five US newspapers were audited, comparing the 12-month periods before and after March 2020 coinciding with the pandemic lockdown, yielding 493 front-page articles and editorials. Each headline and full-text article was separately analyzed and categorized as either positive, negative or neutral toward the pharmaceutical industry. A frequency analysis of the hot button issues covered in each article was conducted.FindingsYear 1 and Year 2 audit results were compared to identify changes in media coverage pre- and post-lockdown. The amount of coverage of the industry increased 145% and the tone of both headlines and articles shifted dramatically. Only one of the five newspapers had a net positive article rating of the industry pre-lockdown, four of five were net positive post-lockdown. The proportion of positive headlines increased 165%. The top issues discussed in the coverage shifted from persistent challenges for the industry (e.g. opioid crisis, high cost of drugs) to the emergence of the virus and status of vaccine development.Originality/valueThis research establishes how media coverage of the pharmaceutical industry changed as the industry responded to a global health-care crisis and identifies implications for industry stakeholders.

Tell me who your contacts are, or what can we learn from standard setting in the context of COVID-19 tracing apps

At the beginning of the pandemic, digital contact tracing was a much-hoped-for initiative that spurred a myriad of apps. Despite a great theoretical promise, however, the tool fell short of significant impact and, essentially, came to nothing. The technological development effort has attracted much scholarly and media attention and coverage. This article seeks to contribute to this growing body of knowledge by approaching the topic from a largely unexplored perspective. It examines the emergence of digital contact tracing as a standard setting exercise, focusing on key actors, processes of technical specification development and data protection assessment of technological choices. It also explores the governance attributes of standard settings from the perspective of data protection law. Given a potential of a technical standard to act as a regulatory means, it is proposed that the governance and legitimacy issues should receive much more consideration. It is believed that for a technical solution to stand the competition for a regulatory share and succeed in the future, the values of inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and openness should be meaningfully internalised in the very process of its development. © 2023

Conflicting discursive representations of overtourism in Lisbon in the Portuguese digital press

PurposeThis study aims to explore the ways in which Portuguese online news reports and opinion studies have framed the discussion about overtourism in Lisbon and its impacts on the city and its inhabitants.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on critical discourse analysis applied to media texts, this paper discusses the discursive representations of overtourism by focusing on how an emerging new discourse which constructs tourism as problematic began to challenge the established discourse – in which tourism is perceived as beneficial.FindingsAs a consequence, and to maintain the status quo, many media texts deploy strong legitimating strategies focusing on the benefits of tourism growth. These are juxtaposed with de-legitimating strategies which serve to deny problems of overtourism. Findings highlight the role the media play in shaping tourism discursively and uncover the complexities of discourses on the effects of (over)tourism and the ways in which they are constructed, disseminated and discussed.Social implicationsThis research is particularly relevant when newspaper opinion articles from 2021 voice the Portuguese Government's concern in bringing back to Portugal the pre-pandemic tourist numbers as soon as possible.Originality/valueThis study attempts to reveal the conflicting interests and imbalances of power among different tourism stakeholders by taking a qualitative, critical approach to the analysis of media discourse as a social practice within the broader socio-political context. This study argues that from an analytical-methodological perspective, media discourse is an optimum research site to critically explore how conflicting interests are positioned in the mass media and how this shapes public opinion.

Media Coverage During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia

The beginning of the pandemic was characterized by a lack of information and knowledge, so the need for ontological security was fulfilled via information provided by the media, scientific content and other expert systems. A pandemic should not only be viewed as a health or economic crisis, but also as a social crisis that requires an analysis of the social context, factors and actors as predictors for understanding its effects and consequences. During the pandemic, the media emerged as an important predictor of risk perception and trust between institutions and the public. We owe our perception to the media that select, omit, shape or interpret certain social phenomena in a specific way. According to the theory of mediatization, the media are viewed through the prism of their relationship with the wider social and institutional environment, so they are also key factors in the perception of individual situations and encouraging a certain type of behavior. Health Belief Model (HBM) claims that socially responsible behavior (promoted by the media) depends on the perception of risk to one's own health and how that certain "promoted" behavior would be effective in combating the risk. Following risk theory, the interpretation of risk depends on the social context, values, interests and activities of social actors, including the media that affect the perception of risk as an objective fact, but also as a social construction (Bagić and Šuljok, 2020: 121). According to the aforementioned theories, the aim of this research was to determine the perception of media coverage and its effect on socially responsible behavior during the first wave of the pandemic, which was marked by a complete cessation of economic and social activities. The data were collected using the online survey questionnaire encompassing the period from March to July 2020. A total of 620 respondents participated in the study. The results suggest that positive perception of media coverage were primarily directed towards traditional media, such as television. Also, the results of the regression analysis suggest that a positive perception of media coverage depends on different socio-demographic characteristics and that it can be an incentive for socially responsible behavior. © 2022 Doron Fakultet Politickih Znanosti. All rights reserved.