Tuning Out the News. A Cross-Media Perspective on News Avoidance Practices of Young News Users in Flanders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vandenplas, Ruben

doi:10.1080/1461670x.2021.1990788

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Finally, regarding news avoidance, it is not possible to determine whether those accessing news from any of these sources are actively avoiding the news elsewhere. Nor is it possible to determine if the updates from these official sources and experts are permeating through some sort of news avoidance barrier -the particular 'coronablocking' which Vandenplas et al (2021) described -or whether those receiving these updates are those still actively and willingly consuming news content. Given the various waves of Covid-19 (Delta and Omicron appeared in late 2021), high case numbers and continued deaths in late 2021 and early 2022, it would be surprising if both information overload and the negative nature of news -both identified by Skovsgaard & Andersen (2020) as factors affecting those who were seeking to avoid exposure to news updates -were not relevant when considering any dips in news consumption habits.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They identify three reasons why people avoid the news: scepticism and issues around trust of news outlets; a sense of information overload; and the negativity bias of news, which can be associated with a sense of helplessness and impact on mood. Vandenplas et al (2021) draw on the term 'coronablocking' among those avoiding pandemic-related news content, while another study highlighted the seemingly contradictory but undeniable trend of Covid-19 leading to an increase in news consumption and also an increase in news avoidance (de Bruin et al, 2021). This leads, the authors of the latter study argue, to a 'dilemma' for citizens in 'striking a balance between consuming enough news to be well-informed while simultaneously not consuming too much to avoid detrimental effects on mental well-being' (de Bruin et al, 2021(de Bruin et al, , p. 1299.…”

Section: Consuming and Avoiding Covid Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Irish audiences and news information from official sources during Covid-19

Wheatley

2022

Administration

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Audiences exist in highly personalised, high-choice media environments built on a hybrid of established traditional brands and informal digital networks. Officials trying to reach the public must navigate such spaces, but public reluctance to consume news coverage is a challenge for health and government officials when trying to communicate with and inform the public during a national health crisis like Covid-19. Based on a representative survey (N=2,031) from the 2021 Reuters Digital News Report, this article focuses on Irish audiences’ information sources during the pandemic; in particular, how government and political sources were used and perceived. The article is a secondary analysis of the data set and focuses on three questions from the survey related to (i) sources of information about Covid-19, (ii) concern about sources of false or misleading information about Covid-19, and (iii) sources of local information about politics and local updates on Covid-19. The article finds that official sources were relatively effective in being heard, and that health agencies like the Health Service Executive and the National Public Health Emergency Team were more salient than politicians, suggesting the pandemic was perhaps apolitical in the eyes of the public, which is often a key strategy for effective crisis communication. Politicians and government actors also succeeded in not being perceived as the main source of concern in terms of false or misleading information, as audiences were more worried about activists. The article also reiterates the importance of health officials reaching out beyond traditional news distribution channels to engage groups who may not access news through traditional channels.

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Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Consuming and Avoiding Covid Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irish audiences and news information from official sources during Covid-19

Wheatley

2022

Administration

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“…News use through the pandemic is a topic that has attracted considerable scholarly interest (Broersma and Swart, 2021; Mihelj et al, 2021; Newman, 2021; Van Aelst et al, 2021). Studies in different countries have found similar patterns of intensified news use in early 2020, but also documented experiences of information overload and news fatigue as the pandemic continued (Ytre-Arne and Moe, 2021; Nguyen, n.d.; De Bruin et al, 2021; Groot Kormelink and Klein Gunnewiek, 2021; Vandenplas et al, 2021; Mannell and Meese, 2022). The studies indicate partly different findings on the meaning of metrics in pandemic news: Groot Kormelink and Klein Gunnewiek (2021) quote young news uses who declared daily numbers were not important, but also find that modes of information-seeking and avoidance seemed to fluctuate with infection rates.…”

Section: Valuable Journalism In Pandemic Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our findings correspond here with several studies on how news users balanced information needs and attempts to avoid overload, in an emotionally charged situation (eg. De Bruin et al, 2021; Vandenplas et al, 2021). Monitoring the infection rate was an important part of the new, intensified news media repertoire:Oh yes, absolutely, so, from March 12th and to the end of May I guess [...] I used the media much more to an extreme degree.…”

Section: Analysis: Monitoring the Infection Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring the infection rate: Explaining the meaning of metrics in pandemic news experiences

Dahl

Ytre-Arne

2023

Journalism

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward questions of what citizens need and want from journalism in a global crisis. In this article, we analyse one particular aspect of pandemic news experiences: Preoccupation with monitoring metrics for COVID-19 infection cases, hospitalisations, and deaths, widely disseminated through journalistic news outlets. We ask why close monitoring of such metrics appeared meaningful to news users, and what these experiences can tell us about the role of journalism in the pandemic information environment. Our analysis draws on qualitative research conducted in Norway in 2020, finding users particularly devoted to monitoring metrics, both in early lockdown and during the second wave of COVID-19. To contextualize our findings, we draw on scholarship on emotional responses to data in the everyday, and on the social role of journalism. We argue that monitoring of infection rates is an expression of trust in the media as a provider of factual information, also expressed by those who are cynical towards other aspects of journalism, and we conceptualise this monitoring practice as a coping strategy to deal with the pandemic as an unknown and uncontrollable threat, involving difficult emotions of uncertainty and fear.

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“…In-depth interviews with Belgian news users (21–33 years old) who experienced changed news habits since the beginning of the pandemic provide insights into the contradictory explanations of increased news consumption and news avoidance ( Vandenplas et al, 2021 ). Initially, people wanted to be up to date about the measures and numbers, wanted to share their insecurities, talked about the news with others, and believed that the news about COVID-19 was inescapable.…”

Section: A Model Of News Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Children’s News Avoidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ebbinkhuijsen

Buijzen²,

Leeuw³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Despite growing concerns that children (8–13 years old) tend to avoid the news, the reasons why have received little research attention. Therefore, the current study aims to develop and test a model conceptualizing the relations between children’s news consumption, news avoidance, emotional responses (negative emotions and anxiety-related behaviors), and parent and child mitigation strategies. The model was tested using data collected during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current, preregistered, survey study was part of a longitudinal project and used data from the second wave. Data were collected in November/December 2020 among 510 children (Mage = 10.40; 53.72% girls). Findings showed that children who consumed more news during the pandemic avoided pandemic news less often. Children who experienced more anxiety-related behaviors regarding pandemic news avoided pandemic news more often. The relation between news consumption and emotional responses was stronger for children who experienced restrictive parental mediation more often, indicating that this was not an effective parental mediation strategy for tempering their emotional responses. Children with higher levels of emotional responses used reactive coping strategies more often. However, this did not seem to be an effective strategy against pandemic news avoidance because none of the strategies had a negative relation with pandemic news avoidance. Distancing was even positively related to pandemic news avoidance. Although the current study was not able to fully unravel how news avoidance-related constructs relate to one another, we were able to get some important insights guiding future research. Specifically, it is of crucial importance to unravel the mechanisms that increase the chance of children’s news avoidance and those that mitigate it, to build interventions to counteract news avoidance and to protect children from the negative emotional consequences by news consumption.

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Tuning Out the News. A Cross-Media Perspective on News Avoidance Practices of Young News Users in Flanders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 21 publications

References 45 publications

Irish audiences and news information from official sources during Covid-19

Irish audiences and news information from official sources during Covid-19

Monitoring the infection rate: Explaining the meaning of metrics in pandemic news experiences

Explaining Children’s News Avoidance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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