Fear-Mongering or Fact-Driven? Illuminating the Interplay of Objective Risk and Emotion-Evoking Form in the Response to Epidemic News

Abstract

This study examined the veracity of the common assumption that news coverage of epidemic outbreaks spawns heightened fears and risk perceptions. An online experiment with 1,324 participants investigated the interplay of the form of news coverage (factual/emotion-laden) and key aspects of actual risk (low/high vulnerability, low/high severity) on audience responses. Participants read one of eight versions of a newspaper article followed by measures on risk perceptions, negative affect, behavioral intentions, and perceived sensationalism. Risk perceptions and fear were primarily driven by objective risk characteristics, whereas emotion-laden news form only increased perceptions of disease severity, not of fear or personal vulnerability.

Effect of Income Level and Perception of Susceptibility and Severity of COVID-19 on Stay-at-Home Preventive Behavior in a Group of Older Adults in Mexico City

“…We also found that older adults in Mexico who used the web and social media for information were more likely to perceive COVID-19 as an extremely severe disease, and more likely to adopt the stay-at-home preventive behavior. How news is presented may also affect emotional responses: it appears that factual information has an effect on perceived susceptibility, while news presented in an emotional way affects perceived severity [ 54 ]. Both of these information styles are available in Mexico’s media, and the personal stories of people who died or contracted the virus are presented in TV news and talk-shows.…”

The Imaginary of an Invisible Enemy: The SARS-CoV-2 Virion on the Spanish TV News

“…In this sense, several studies have addressed the advantages and disadvantages of using fear as a communication strategy in risk health communication. Nevertheless, the results are not conclusive (Paek, Oh, and Hove, 2016;Klemm, Hartmann, and Das, 2017).…”

La representación gráfica del virión del SARS-CoV-2 en España: comparación entre la prensa impresa y los informativos televisivos

“…En concreto, los grandes viriones utilizados en los informativos de televisión, con largas espículas amenazantes, parecen tener como principal objetivo hacer visible a un enemigo de contrastada letalidad. En ese sentido, varios estudios han abordado las ventajas y desventajas de utilizar el miedo como estrategia en la comunicación de riesgos para la salud, pero los resultados no son concluyentes (Klemm, Hartmann, y Das, 2017).…”