News, Threats, and Trust: How COVID-19 News Shaped Political Trust, and How Threat Perceptions Conditioned This Relationship

Abstract

This study explores shifts in political trust during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland, examining the role that media consumption and threat perceptions played in individuals’ trust in politics. We combine panel surveys taken before and during the first nation-wide lockdown with webtracking data of participants' online behaviour to paint a nuanced picture of media effects during the crisis. Our work has several findings. First, political trust, an attitude known for its stability, increased following lockdown. Second, consumption of mainstream news on COVID-19 directly hindered this increase, with those reading more news having lower over-time trust, while the relatively minor alternative news consumption had no direct effect on political trust. Third, threat perceptions a) to health and b) from the policy response to the pandemic, have strong and opposite effects on political trust, with threats to health increasing trust, and threats from the government policy response decreasing it. Lastly, these threat perceptions condition the effect of COVID-19 news consumption on political trust: perceptions of threat had the power to both exacerbate and mute the effect of media consumption on government trust during the pandemic. Notably, we show that the expected negative effect of alternative news on political trust only exists for those who did not think COVID-19 posed a threat to their health, while public service news consumption reduced the negative effect produced by government threat perceptions. The paper therefore advances our understanding of the nuanced nature of media effects, particularly as relates to alternative media, especially during moments of crisis.

Impact of influencers’ Facebook pages in cultivating fear and terror among youths during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Building on these results in the context of Facebook, several scholars argued that people consume news more frequently during times of catastrophe, war, pandemic, economic crisis, political tension, etc. (De Coninck et al, 2020;de León et al, 2022;Nguyen & Nguyen, 2020). In this regard, our results highly align with the aforesaid, as we are currently facing a health crisis that led to a complete lockdown and other preventive measures.…”

“…People's reliance on news media coverage significantly increases during times of uncertainty and crisis to obtain accurate information about the situation-this holds true, particularly at the time being where people around the globe are facing a health crisis that led to a complete lockdown and other preventive measures (De Coninck et al, 2020;de León et al, 2022;Nguyen & Nguyen, 2020). It is worth noting that during times of threat (i.e., war, terrorism, health crisis, economic crisis), various news coverages on different platforms can have the same impact on fear and anxiety levels.…”

“…It is usually associated with anxiety and fear levels, where overly sensationalized coverage heightens fear and stress. (De Coninck et al, 2020;de León et al, 2022). Relying on the social amplification assumption, the more people consume news and information on social media or any other platform, the more confused-many if not most of them will be.…”

Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland

“…Second, research indicates that people with higher levels of trust in political institutions also show higher levels of trust in news media (e.g., Ariely, 2015 ; Bennett et al, 1999 ; Hanitzsch et al, 2018 ; Lee, 2010 ; Tsfati & Ariely, 2014 ) which might be due to the fact that traditional news media tend to index the voices of political elites ( Adam, 2007 ; Bennett, 1990 ). Interestingly, we see that trust in political institutions has changed during the Covid-19 pandemic with most studies indicating substantial trust increases at least for the first stage of the crisis ( Bol et al, 2021 ; de León et al, 2022 ; Devine et al, 2021 ; Esaiasson et al, 2021 ; Schraff, 2021 ). Third, in such exceptional situations, it is likely that at least part of the population will become highly involved.…”

Pilkada During a Pandemic: The Influence of News Media on Trust and Political Participation Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The news media is a channel through which citizens get and are exposed to information which is then able to shape their perspective on government and ultimately influence political trust (de León et al, 2022). Framing news coverage can get used to the political system which leads to increased political trust.…”