Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic
How did the 2020 coronavirus pandemic affect people's online news consumption? To understand this, we present a comparative analysis of data on an estimated 905B desktop and mobile visits to news outlets, and 54B Facebook engagements, generated by news outlets in the US, UK, France, and Germany...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media
2022
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| _version_ | 1797108685500055552 |
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| author | Altay, S Kleis Nielsen, R Fletcher, R |
| author_facet | Altay, S Kleis Nielsen, R Fletcher, R |
| author_sort | Altay, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | How did the 2020 coronavirus pandemic affect people's online news consumption? To understand this, we present a comparative analysis of data on an estimated 905B desktop and mobile visits to news outlets, and 54B Facebook engagements, generated by news outlets in the US, UK, France, and Germany between 2017 and 2021. We find that in 2020 online news consumption increased. Trustworthy news outlets benefited the most from the increase in web traffic. In the UK trustworthy news outlets also benefited the most from the increase in Facebook engagement, but in other countries both trustworthy and untrustworthy news outlets benefited from the increase in Facebook engagement. Overall, untrustworthy news outlets captured 2.3% of web traffic and 14.0% of Facebook engagement, while news outlets regularly publishing false content accounted for 1.4% of web traffic and 6.8% of Facebook engagement. People largely turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:30:34Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:8e6e269c-40f9-4c76-9d94-18659635715a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:30:34Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:8e6e269c-40f9-4c76-9d94-18659635715a2023-01-19T14:30:37ZQuantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemicJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8e6e269c-40f9-4c76-9d94-18659635715aEnglishSymplectic ElementsJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2022Altay, SKleis Nielsen, RFletcher, RHow did the 2020 coronavirus pandemic affect people's online news consumption? To understand this, we present a comparative analysis of data on an estimated 905B desktop and mobile visits to news outlets, and 54B Facebook engagements, generated by news outlets in the US, UK, France, and Germany between 2017 and 2021. We find that in 2020 online news consumption increased. Trustworthy news outlets benefited the most from the increase in web traffic. In the UK trustworthy news outlets also benefited the most from the increase in Facebook engagement, but in other countries both trustworthy and untrustworthy news outlets benefited from the increase in Facebook engagement. Overall, untrustworthy news outlets captured 2.3% of web traffic and 14.0% of Facebook engagement, while news outlets regularly publishing false content accounted for 1.4% of web traffic and 6.8% of Facebook engagement. People largely turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. |
| spellingShingle | Altay, S Kleis Nielsen, R Fletcher, R Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title | Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title_full | Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title_short | Quantifying the “infodemic”: people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
| title_sort | quantifying the infodemic people turned to trustworthy news outlets during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic |
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