Perceptions of early news coverage about COVID-19: Citizens had positive attitudes toward their own Covid-19 news sources, but were critical about the news sources others were using to get information about the virus

My pandemic news is better than yours: audience perceptions of early news coverage about Covid-19. Mallory R. Perryman. Communication Research Reports, Nov 23 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2021.2007070

Abstract: This study focuses on how American audiences perceived news coverage during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. Through a survey-experiment of news consumers (N = 767) over a three-day period in mid-March 2020, this study shows that citizens had positive attitudes toward their own Covid-19 news sources, but were critical about the news sources others were using to get information about the virus. Data reveal evidence of presumed media influence, where audiences believed others’ health behaviors were being influenced by pandemic news.

Keywords: Presumed media influencemedia perceptionsperceived news habitsthird-person effectfirst-person effectpresumed behavior