News Consumption and Its Unpleasant Side Effect

Boukes, Mark; Vliegenthart, Rens

doi:10.1027/1864-1105/a000224

Cited by 66 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(129 reference statements)

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“…People who constantly consumed news about the crisis showed higher anxiety, stress, and depression scores. Hard news consumption has been previously associated with decreased mental well-being ( Boukes and Vliegenthart, 2017 ), a result in line with our findings. The “stress” (related to fear or worry) about going out was another factor that we studied.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Longitudinal evaluation of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Spain

Planchuelo‐Gómez

Odriozola-González

Muñiz

et al. 2020

Journal of Affective Disorders

166

135

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The aim of this study was to assess the temporal evolution of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown from two surveys carried out in Spain with a time difference of about one month. Symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and the psychological impact of the situation were longitudinally analyzed using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Impact of Event Scale (IES) respectively. The Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) and the Mini-Social Phobia Inventory (Mini-SPIN) were also employed to evaluate resilience and social anxiety. There was a total of 4,724 responses from both surveys. Symptomatic scores of anxiety, depression and stress were exhibited by 37.22%, 46.42% and 49.66% of the second survey respondents, showing a significant increase compared to the first survey (32.45%, 44.11% and 37.01%, respectively). There was no significant longitudinal change of the IES scores, with 48.30% of the second survey participants showing moderate to severe impact of the confinement. Low resilience was shown by 40.5% of the respondents, and high social anxiety by 34.8%. Constant news consumption about COVID-19 was found to be positively associated with symptomatic scores in the different scales. On the other hand, daily physical activity was found to be negatively associated with DASS-21 scores. Results indicate that people with social anxiety might be especially vulnerable to the development of other mental disorders after the relaxation of the confinement measures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Longitudinal evaluation of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Spain

Planchuelo‐Gómez

Odriozola-González

Muñiz

et al. 2020

Journal of Affective Disorders

166

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To measure frequency of COVID-19 news consumption from websites, SNS, and IM apps, we used three items, rated on a scale ranging from 0 (no consumption at all) to 7 (every day consumption); the scale was used in other studies [96] and it approximated the number of days in the previous week that people consumed COVID-19-related news from websites (other than official websites and social networking sites), SNS (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. ), and IM apps (such as WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, etc.).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories about the COVID-19 Pandemic in Romania? An Analysis of Conspiracy Theories Believers’ Profiles

et al. 2021

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The current COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by the circulation of an unprecedented amount of “polluted” information, especially in the social media environment, among which are false narratives and conspiracy theories about both the pandemic and vaccination against COVID-19. The effects of such questionable information primarily concern the lack of compliance with restrictive measures and a negative attitude towards vaccination campaigns, as well as more complex social effects, such as street protests or distrust in governments and authorities in general. Even though there is a lot of scholarly attention given to these narratives in many countries, research about the profile of people who are more prone to believe or spread them is rather scarce. In this context, we investigate the role of age, compared with other socio-demographic factors (such as education and religiosity), as well as the role of the media (the frequency of news consumption, the perceived usefulness of social media, and the perceived incidence of fake information about the virus in the media) and the critical thinking disposition of people who tend to believe such misleading narratives. To address these issues, we conducted a national survey (N = 945) in April 2021 in Romania. Using a hierarchical OLS regression model, we found that people who perceive higher incidence of fake news (ß = 0.33, p < 0.001), find social media platforms more useful (ß = 0.13, p < 0.001), have lower education (ß = −0.17, p < 0.001), and have higher levels of religiosity (ß = 0.08, p < 0.05) are more prone to believe COVID-19-related misleading narratives. At the same time, the frequency of news consumption (regardless of the type of media), critical thinking disposition, and age do not play a significant role in the profile of the believer in conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Somewhat surprisingly, age does not play a role in predicting belief in conspiracy theories, even though there are studies that suggest that older people are more prone to believe conspiracy narratives. As far as media is concerned, the frequency of news media consumption does not significantly differ for believers and non-believers. We discuss these results within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“…Previous researchers have worried that exposure to troubling current events may decrease wellbeing, but specific topics, reporting, and context of news consumed may alter its effects on mental health. 39 Some evidence suggests that among young adults, news consumption on the internet may be positively related to civic participation and perceptions of social capital. 40…”

Section: Non-social Use Of Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential associations between types of social media use and university students' non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal behavior

Kingsbury

Reme

Skogen

et al. 2021

Computers in Human Behavior

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Objective. To examine differential associations between types of social media use and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behaviors. Methods. Participants were N = 40,065 Norwegian college and university students, age 18-25, from the 2018 Students' Health and Wellbeing (SHoT) study. Students reported on their use of social media for seven specific activities, which we categorized into active and passive nonsocial use, passive social use, active public social, and active private social use. We also considered students' tendency for negative social comparisons on social media. Outcomes were past-year NSSI, NSSI ideation, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempt. Covariates were age, gender, total daily screen time and financial stress. Results. Results of multiple logistic regression revealed differential associations between types of social media use and outcomes. Notably, active social private use (e.g., messaging friends) was associated with decreased odds of all outcomes, whereas active social public use (e.g., status updates) was associated with increased odds of NSSI ideation, NSSI, and suicide attempt. Social comparison was associated with increased odds of all outcomes. Conclusion. Our results suggest that specific types of social media use are differentially associated with NSSI and suicidal outcomes among university students.

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News Consumption and Its Unpleasant Side Effect

Cited by 66 publications

References 62 publications

Longitudinal evaluation of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Spain

Longitudinal evaluation of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Spain

Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories about the COVID-19 Pandemic in Romania? An Analysis of Conspiracy Theories Believers’ Profiles

Differential associations between types of social media use and university students' non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal behavior

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