Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity
<h4>Background</h4> Current media studies of COVID-19 devote asymmetrical attention to social media, in contrast, newspapers have received comparatively less attention. Newspapers are an integral source of current information—that are syndicated and amplified by social media to a wide gl...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9728893/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1811294611677642752 |
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| author | Reuben Ng Yi Wen Tan |
| author_facet | Reuben Ng Yi Wen Tan |
| author_sort | Reuben Ng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <h4>Background</h4> Current media studies of COVID-19 devote asymmetrical attention to social media, in contrast, newspapers have received comparatively less attention. Newspapers are an integral source of current information—that are syndicated and amplified by social media to a wide global audience. This is the first-known study to investigate the impact of cultural values and pandemic severity on media attention towards COVID-19. Findings lay the groundwork for targeted public health communications that are culturally nuanced. <h4>Objective</h4> We investigated the impact of cultural values and pandemic severity on Media Attention towards COVID-19 across 18 countries. <h4>Methods</h4> We tracked the global volume of COVID-19 coverage (to measure media attention) over 8 months in a news media database of 12 billion words with 30 million articles from over 7,000 news media sites. Predictors of Media Attention towards COVID-19 came from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (incidence and mortality) and Hofstede’s Cultural Values. <h4>Results</h4> Media attention toward COVID-19 increased 55 times over 8 months. Higher rates of new cases and deaths predicted this exponential increase. Countries with higher power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation, were associated with increased media attention, controlling for covariates. <h4>Conclusions</h4> Cultural values play a significant role in the news media’s attention toward COVID-19, controlling for pandemic severity. We provided a framework to design targeted public health communications that are culturally nuanced. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:20:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-38291334a92e44c7bd859d8a19de837c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:20:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-38291334a92e44c7bd859d8a19de837c2022-12-22T03:00:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-011712Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severityReuben NgYi Wen Tan<h4>Background</h4> Current media studies of COVID-19 devote asymmetrical attention to social media, in contrast, newspapers have received comparatively less attention. Newspapers are an integral source of current information—that are syndicated and amplified by social media to a wide global audience. This is the first-known study to investigate the impact of cultural values and pandemic severity on media attention towards COVID-19. Findings lay the groundwork for targeted public health communications that are culturally nuanced. <h4>Objective</h4> We investigated the impact of cultural values and pandemic severity on Media Attention towards COVID-19 across 18 countries. <h4>Methods</h4> We tracked the global volume of COVID-19 coverage (to measure media attention) over 8 months in a news media database of 12 billion words with 30 million articles from over 7,000 news media sites. Predictors of Media Attention towards COVID-19 came from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (incidence and mortality) and Hofstede’s Cultural Values. <h4>Results</h4> Media attention toward COVID-19 increased 55 times over 8 months. Higher rates of new cases and deaths predicted this exponential increase. Countries with higher power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation, were associated with increased media attention, controlling for covariates. <h4>Conclusions</h4> Cultural values play a significant role in the news media’s attention toward COVID-19, controlling for pandemic severity. We provided a framework to design targeted public health communications that are culturally nuanced.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9728893/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Reuben Ng Yi Wen Tan Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity PLoS ONE |
| title | Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| title_full | Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| title_fullStr | Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| title_short | Media attention toward COVID-19 across 18 countries: The influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| title_sort | media attention toward covid 19 across 18 countries the influence of cultural values and pandemic severity |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9728893/?tool=EBI |
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