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.

The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation.

Numerous studies find associations between social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation. While such findings are often interpreted as evidence that social media causally promotes conspiracy beliefs, we theorize that this relationship is conditional on other individual-level predispositions. Across two studies, we examine the relationship between beliefs in conspiracy theories and media use, finding that individuals who get their news from social media and use social media frequently express more beliefs in some types of conspiracy theories and misinformation. However, we also find that these relationships are conditional on conspiracy thinking--the predisposition to interpret salient events as products of conspiracies--such that social media use becomes more strongly associated with conspiracy beliefs as conspiracy thinking intensifies. This pattern, which we observe across many beliefs from two studies, clarifies the relationship between social media use and beliefs in dubious ideas. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-021-09734-6.

THE PANDEMIC CRISIS AND ITS IMPACT ON SPORT

The article describes the changes in the functioning of media-dependent professional and competitive sport caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It addresses the strong dependence of sport on electronic media;the consequences of a break in the production of sports broadcasts for the media, sports organisations and athletes;and pandemic remedial strategies. A discussion of the role of sport in contemporary consumer culture and its importance in the development and reduction of the impact of the pandemic is also presented.Alternate :W artykule dokonano opisu wywołanych pandemią COVID-19 zmian w funkcjonowaniu sportu wyczynowego i profesjonalnego prezentowanego w mediach. Wskazane zostało silne uzależnienie sportu od mediów elektronicznych, jego skutki w sytuacji przerwy w produkcji sportowych widowisk dla samych mediów, organizacji sportowych i sportowców oraz pandemiczne strategie zaradcze. Przedstawiona została także dyskusja nad rolą sportu we współczesnej kulturze konsumpcyjnej i jego znaczenie dla rozwoju i ograniczania skutków pandemii.

Effective Usage of Social Media Platforms as a Communication Tool Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world completely changed how one thought about communication and engaged with one another. Hence, there is a need to critically explore the effective use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube as communication tools for information sharing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become necessary for many different organisations. In the quest to avoid the spread of incorrect information and bad news that may cause panic from the general public, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, bloggers and news agencies call for proper and effective use of social media platforms as communication tools. This paper analyses the effects of the development of social media messaging platforms, alongside its inferences to the general society.

The politics of Chinese immigrants' double unbelonging and deglobalization

This study theorizes the politics of belonging, drawing on the case of Chinese immigrants. In the heyday of globalization, Chinese immigrants used to enjoy a high degree of transnational mobility and multiple belongings. Now, in the wake of China–West geopolitical contestations and during the time of COVID-19, many Chinese immigrants are experiencing double unbelonging due to marginalization in both the host society and China. By analyzing double unbelonging, this study makes three theoretical contributions. First, it expands the conventional cultural–humanistic framework of belonging to incorporate political analysis. Second, it discusses why and how to replace the positivist approach to belonging as exemplified by acculturation theory with a social constructionist approach to the politics of belonging. Finally, the study theorizes unbelonging—its epistemological advantage, its dialectical relation with belonging, its production by the nation-state and media, and how polarizing geopolitics produce double unbelonging.

2022 Beijing winter Olympic games: The effect of media visual primes on American public opinion about the Olympics and China

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics took place when American public opinion about China was already predominantly negative as media reports had a lot of highlights of human rights violations happening in China. Besides, earlier, the global image of China was undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we explored whether American public opinion about the Olympics and China can be influenced by images of the Olympics shared in the media. Findings from the 2 × 2 between-subject experimental design suggest that the opinions about the Olympics can be predicted by people's beliefs about China's role in the global pandemic. In addition to that, our findings suggest that pre-existing opinions and feelings held by most of the population can mitigate the effects of visual primes. © The Author(s) 2023.

Latino-Targeted Misinformation and the Power of Factual Corrections

Do individual, interpersonal, or institutional factors condition the effects of misinformation on beliefs? Can interventions such as fact checks stem the tide of the "infodemic” within marginalized communities? We explore the sudden flood of misinformation and disinformation targeting Latinos during the 2020 election and global COVID-19 pandemic to answer these questions. In a preregistered experiment, we find that exposure to misinformation can decrease factual accuracy, and neither trust in nor consumption of media, including ethnic media, serves as a buffer against these misinformation effects. However, fact checks eliminate the effects of misinformation on false beliefs without "backfiring” and reducing accuracy. Fact checks improve factual accuracy among subgroups varying in levels of political knowledge, trust, and acculturation. These findings provide crucial support for recent investments into fact checking by Latino-oriented media outlets and address gaps within the literature over whether such interventions are also effective within marginalized groups.

Comparing the Rhetorical characteristics of the Covid-19 related content in TV, News Agencies and Instagram

Focusing on the message creation techniques, this article analyzes the rhetorical devices used for message production in four news agencies, news at 21 pm on channel one of IRIB and Instagram texts during the first months of the spread of the Corona virus. Based on the literature review, research on the management of the production of content related to Covid-19 distributed by the media is important because audiences consume the content in both traditional and modern media and are affected by them. However, previous studies have not analyzed the types of information from the perspective of the rhetorical tools in crisis management. The conceptual framework of the present paper is based on the importance of perception in crisis management and the three categories of Instructing, Adjusting and Internalizing information according to Sturges' theory. The effectiveness of crisis communication depends on the rhetorical and sequence of information presentation during the crisis. So, Instructing information should be provided firstly, then Adjusting information and finally, Internalizing information. Techniques of content production are identified by using qualitative content analysis, identifying the rhetorical devices used in the texts, and the two concepts of schemes and tropes in Leigh's model. Accordingly, a number of 257 news items broadcasted on Iranian National TV, 17519 news items appeared in news agencies and 17 Instagram pages with more than 1000 followers have been analyzed. The findings show that content production techniques can be separated from three perspectives: a) Presentation format: Interview, film, conversation, animation, comic, vector, PowerPoint, and diagram are common formats. b) Content production methods: comparison, explanation, naming, metaphor, emphasis, simplification, and sensitization. c) Content production purpose: the common objectives are judgment, education, informing, hopefulness, panic. In concluding: The presentation format on Instagram has been more diverse than that of television and news agencies. Among the types of content, videos and especially videos that have humorous content and Islamic medicine, have been viewed more than others. Confrontation with anti-science can be seen in news agencies and Instagram, but 21 pm TV broadcasts do not pay attention to this issue. TV and news agencies have used tropes, but no scheme has been used on Instagram. The effectiveness of the content influencing on the behavior change decreases in Instagram, news agency and television, respectively.

The digital communication tools and citizens' relationship with local governments: a comparison of Georgian and Polish cities

This article aims to explore the impact of digital communication tools application by citizens and the perceived usefulness of social media on the relationship between citizens and local authorities. The data were gathered in April–September 2020 through a survey (CAWI) among citizens of Poznan, Poland (n=502), and Kutaisi, Georgia (n=504), and were analyzed with structural equation modeling. The findings show that the intensity of digital communication tools usage for participation in the city branding and the perceived usefulness of social media contribute to the lasting relationships between citizens and local authorities in both countries. The novelty of this research concerns comparing two countries with different levels of development. Georgia is a developing economy in Europe and is in the process of modernizing the local governance across the cities. Poland, however, is a mature economy with a post-transformation heritage, where its cities benefit from considerable experience in building and developing citizen participation policies. Furthermore, the research was conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic and evidenced the growing popularity of digital tools adoption by citizens in city matters. This study contributes to understanding the impact of digital tools on the relationship between citizens and local authorities in terms of city brand management. Citizens' participation in the city branding process via various digital communication tools increased citizen commitment towards long-lasting collaboration with local authorities. Moreover, citizens' perception of social media usefulness positively influences their desire to engage in the city branding process online, supporting the trust-building and collaboration between citizens and local authorities. Points for practitioners The intensiveness of digital tools usage – governments should identify the tools already trusted and popular among their audience and employ those tools to a greater extent to maximize the chances of feedback, high citizen participation, and commitment. Citizens' perception of social media – such characteristics as ease of use, transparency, ease of communication with the municipality, and safety encourage citizens to get involved in the city brand management process. Consequently, local authorities should consider the features mentioned above and develop the online tools quality.

Populist Communication in a Time of Global Pandemic: Understanding 'Post-truth Populism' During COVID-19

Populism and the post-truth: two concepts often used simultaneously or interchangeably to explain current developments in contemporary politics, yet the demarcation line between them remains blurry. Building on definitions of populism that describe it as a style of political communication, 'post-truth populism' can be regarded as a specific type of populist communication which shares the characteristics of post-truth politics. How the two phenomena intertwine, and how the aesthetic transformation of the public sphere and the rise of social media had a role in their appearance will be discussed. The theoretical framework is illustrated by two cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Effects of Partisan Media in the Face of Global Pandemic: How News Shaped COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Some might expect the promise of ending a global pandemic via vaccination to interrupt conventional partisan media effect processes. We test that possibility by bringing together sentiment-scored COVID vaccine stories (N > 17,000) from cable and mainstream news outlets, N > 180,000 Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports, and six original surveys (N = 6,499), in order to investigate (1) whether partisan news outlets covered COVID vaccination in different ways, and (2) if differences in coverage increased vaccine hesitancy. We find that Fox News' (FXNWS) coverage was significantly more negative than that of other cable and mainstream sources, and is associated with increased negative public vaccine sentiment. In the aggregate, adverse event reports tended to increase following periods of heightened negativity on FXNWS. At the micro-level, self-reported FXNWS exposure is associated with increased vaccine refusal. Collectively, the results provide new insights into the public health consequences of vaccine politicization. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Media policy analysis and diplomatic interactions during COVID-19 between China and the United States in a comparative perspective

This is a comparative study of official diplomatic speeches regarding COVID-19, released by spokespersons for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and documents from the United States Department of State China Archive. It explores how these speeches and documents reflect the US–China relations and the conduct of policies surrounding digital media in the two countries. We focus on the period from the start of the Wuhan lockdown, 20 January 2020, to the city's reopening on 8 April, and use several forms of content analysis to analyse the documents: Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling, sentiment network analysis and word clouds. We argue that the diplomatic relationship and political ideologies adopted by different political and media systems can have a major impact upon media policy implementation and guidance.

Social media e pandemia. Il Movimento inconsapevole

The massive diffusion of social media has produced disintermediation and it has changed the way in which users inform themselves and participate in public debate. On the other hand, users show a tendency to interact with information that adheres to personal choices and previous opinions. This propensity is "exploited” by algorithms that manage and sort communication on social media, increasingly producing a polarized audience. The essay shows the outcomes of these dynamics by focusing on the communications structure related to the pandemic. In this sense, social media constitute a risk because they convey out-of-control access to unreliable information and because they can result in the absence of correct information, if not in a problem for democracy. On the technical level, at least three complex reticular structures are identified that evolve following different directions, emerged from three sequentially monitored lemmas (no-mask, covid-19, greenpass). Further considerations concern the increasingly dense interweaving between online communication and the genesis of protest movements with evanescent, single-issue structures.

When Nationalism Encounters the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding Chinese Nationalism From Media Use and Media Trust

COVID-19, as a major public health crisis, has triggered nationalism to different degrees all around the world. This study utilises an online survey to explore the relationships between media use, media trust, and nationalism in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the level of nationalism was still considerably high in China at the time of the pandemic and that the role of the media in nation-state building enterprises remains significant. It becomes more pervasive after the news media's adoption of digitalisation. Our study argues that contemporary China's expression of nationalism is socially constructed by media and rooted in its Chinese Confucian culture. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is increasingly designing the news media and manages social media. It has already successfully constructed a sense of nationalism to facilitate its own interests in response to the national crisis. This has led nationalism being embodied in the media's constructed social reality.

The U.S.-Threat Discourse, Hawkish and Maneuvered Public, and China's Foreign Policy

It has been argued that Chinese public opinion is often instrumentalized by the government to accomplish maneuverability and flexibility in Chinese foreign policy. Meanwhile, the dynamic social media environment continues to develop in novel and sometimes unanticipated ways that have various consequences for Chinese foreign policy. Can the authoritarian Chinese government dynamically shape public opinion using social media as the main communication channel to produce and collect responses to international affairs? What effect does a highly unified public opinion have on China's foreign policy? The dynamics of posts on Weibo throughout 2020 and the frequency of comments pertaining to specific issues are examined in this study through content and sentiment analysis. The results demonstrate an alignment and suggest a correlation between Chinese public opinion and the attitudes of the party-state on China's foreign policy. The results indicate that Chinese public opinion exhibited an increasing sense of the superiority of China's achievements, an endogenous preference for more hawkish attitudes toward the U.S., and a drive for a "wolf warrior" diplomacy. This is both a consequence of governmental manipulation and education over the long term and a catalyst for a more hawkish foreign policy in the future. In the long run, the highly unified public opinion that has been intentionally created by the party-state may eventually require additional effort to justify foreign policy positions that the public considers insufficiently assertive.

Longitudinal study of an emerging COVID-19 stigma: Media exposure, danger appraisal, and stress

Media coverage of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has played a critical role throughout the pandemic: sharing news about the novel virus, policies and practices to mitigate it, and the race to create and distribute vaccines. The media coverage, however, has been critiqued as stigmatizing. Although this critique is not new, there is limited understanding of how and why new stigmas emerge from exposure to media coverage. Drawing upon the model of stigma communication (Smith et al., 2019) and the attribution model of stigma (Corrigan et al., 2003), we investigated a novel model of stigma emergence that delineates two kinds of longitudinal processes: (a) a message-effects process, in which exposure to mediated messages about COVID-19 leads to public stigma through danger appraisal and (b) a coping process in which stress and rumination shape later perceptions of public stigma. To test the model, we tracked an emerging COVID-19 stigma with a two-wave survey of a prospective, longitudinal cohort living in one county in a mid-Atlantic state (N = 883). The results supported this model. The longitudinal processes of stigma emergence and implications for COVID-19 stigma are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychological and Social Pressures on Doctors and Nurses working In University Hospitals during Coronavirus Pandemic

The study aimed at recognizing the real performance of doctors and nurses working in Saudi Hospitals during Coronavirus Pandemic, determining the psychological and social pressures that confront them, and their most significant suggestions to mitigate the pressures during Coronavirus Pandemic. The social survey methodology is used. The sample consists of (65) doctors and (78) nurses. The results have revealed that the real performance of doctors and nurses is (their obligation to the applicable precautionary measures for confronting COVID-19), and the most prominent psychological and social pressures that confront doctors in hospitals are: (their feeling of fear of the possibility of their infection with COVID-19). Nurses were neutral in their approval about the pressures they are confronting. The most prominent suggestion of doctors to mitigate such pressures is (raising awareness of the society individuals about the necessity of cooperation with them to confront implications of Coronavirus Pandemic). The most important suggestion of nurses is (investment of media for raising awareness about the positive role of male and female nurses that must be respected in reduction of COVID-19 risks). The study recommended working on raising awareness of the society individuals about necessity of cooperation with male and female doctors in hospitals to confront the implications of Coronavirus Pandemic.

Children ‘at risk': a critical content analysis exploring representations of childhood in Canadian media from the first wave to the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Building upon two previously published research papers exploring Canadian media reporting of childhood in the first wave of the pandemic, this paper investigates how constructions of childhood evolved from the first wave to the fourth wave of the pandemic. This qualitative research is guided by the central research question: Over the span of 2 years, from 2020 to 2022, what changes are evident in discourses reported within media focused on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on Canadians under the age of 18 years? Findings from this study suggest that in the fourth wave young people were constructed as innocent victims of pandemic restrictions framed through an adult-centric lens;noticeably absent were representations of young people under the age of 18 in their voices. A key recommendation emerged from this study: any future research investigating the impact of the pandemic on young people under aged 18 years must include their full participation.

COVID-19-related fears, stress and depression in adolescents: The role of loneliness and relational closeness to online friends

Research shows that the various waves of COVID-19 have generated increased fears, loneliness, and negative feelings in many adolescents. In this context, social media use may fulfill the pivotal function of connection, thereby supporting a sense of relational and emotional closeness to others via online interactions. However, there is no agreement as to the risks or buffering effects of social media usage among adolescents during the pandemic. The current study aims to explore the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19-related fears on adolescents' perceived stress and depression, evaluating the mediating effect of their sense of loneliness and the moderating effect of relational closeness to online friends. A sample of 544 Italian adolescents participated in an online survey during the third wave of COVID-19 (71.9% females;mean age = 16.22 years). The survey comprised the Multidimensional Assessment of COVID-19-Related Fears, the Italian Loneliness Scale, the Depression and Stress subscales of the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale-21, and the Relational Closeness. The findings show a mediating effect of loneliness in the predictive relationship between COVID-19-related fears and both depression and stress, and they also indicate that relational closeness to online friends has a moderating effect, buffering the effect of loneliness on adolescents' stress and depression. The positive role of relational closeness to online friends suggests the need to consider the quality of the specific use of social media among adolescents, which may serve precise functions and needs.

Administrative Burden as Intermediate Negative Policy Feedback: Explaining Low-Income Migrant Exodus amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

This article describes the social mechanisms that condition the negative policy feedback effects among powerless social groups. It uses the policy feedback theory to explain the role of the administrative burden as the intermediate negative policy feedback that can lead to end negative policy feedback effects. The article elaborates upon the unequal treatment of low-income migrants in cities during pre-pandemic times and how that has led to alienation and civil disobedience during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It highlights the essential role of democratic mechanisms like media and the judiciary in mitigating the inequality exacerbating effects of public service encounters. The article makes a case for promoting an understanding of the concept of the administrative burden that converges its experience-distant and experience-near meanings.