(Mis)understanding the Coronavirus and How it Was Handled in the UK: An Analysis of Public Knowledge and the Information Environment

ABSTRACT

During the coronavirus pandemic, conspiracy theories and dubious health guidance about COVID-19 led to public debates about the role and impact of blatant acts of disinformation. But less attention has been paid to the broader media environment, which is how most people understood the crisis and how it was handled by different governments.

Drawing on a news diary study of 200 participants during the pandemic, we found they easily identified examples of “fake news” but were less aware of relevant facts that might help them understand how the UK government managed the crisis. Our content analysis of 1259 television news items revealed broadcasters did not routinely draw on statistics to contextualise the UK’s record of managing the coronavirus or regularly make comparisons with other countries. Given television news bulletins were the dominant news source for many people in the UK, we suggest the information environment gave audiences limited opportunities to understand the government’s performance internationally.

We argue that misinformation is often a symptom of editorial choices in media coverage—including television news produced by public service broadcasters—that can lead to gaps in public knowledge. We conclude by suggesting the concept of the information environment should play a more prominent role in studies that explore the causes of misinformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Misinformation
• disinformation
• coronavirus
• public knowledge
• content analysis
• television news
• news diary
• information environment

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All tables may not add up to 100% due to rounding up data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council: [Grant Number AH/S012508/1].