A comprehensive review of recent advances in research on COVID in communication studies

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a great global crisis, during which media influenced society and social interactions affected media use. Researchers from various research fields have studied the pandemic both globally and locally. This study aims to summarize the research on COVID-19 pandemic within communication studies, taking into account 358 articles published in SJR best ranked journals in 2020–2022. Methods The study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. Using manual coding and qualitative content analysis, we investigate articles’ distribution according to journals, time, accessibility (either open, free or restricted) and methodological approaches. We also provide a qualitative summary of trending research themes. Using quantitative social network analysis (SNA) we present the distribution of institutions and countries in articles’ affiliations, and the collaboration network at institutional and country level. Results Results show an in-time increase of COVID-related publications. Articles were affiliated with 490 institutions from 68 countries, with the USA having the greatest representation. There was an underrepresentation of African and South American countries, which reflects the core-periphery challenge in knowledge production. The network analysis revealed that very few of possible connections were actually achieved. There is an observable trend of using quantitative methods. A growth on the gap between qualitative and quantitative studies was observed each year. More than a half of articles using qualitative methods were published in restricted access. Our qualitative summary of the addressed topics and main findings in articles related to COVID-19, media and society revealed a wide research interest in pandemics impacts on news consumption, media use and journalism, as well as infodemic, conspiracy narratives, science mistrust and discrimination and inequalities increased by the pandemic. Conclusion To provide a wider perspective on the worldwide impact of pandemic, more studies from underrepresented countries are needed. The collaboration between institutions and countries requires strengthening. Qualitative studies were conducted considerably less than quantitative studies and they were usually published in restricted access, which leads to a methodological gap.