Media Exposure and Health Behavior during Pandemics: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Knowledge and Fear on Compliance with COVID-19 Prevention Measures

ABSTRACT

Emerging research has examined the role of media coverage of diseases in influencing people’s health behavior, particularly their compliance with prevention measures. This study examines whether increased media exposure to COVID-19 news and interpersonal communication about the disease positively relate to people’s abidance by prevention measures, and whether perceived knowledge and fear mediate this relationship. The study focuses on Lebanon, whose government and media responses led to a successful containment of COVID-19 in its first phase, although the country was experiencing a severe economic crisis, widespread political unrest, and a massive influx of refugees. It examines both legacy media (Television) and social media, as well as interpersonal communication, through a cross-sectional researcher-administered phone survey of 1,536 adults and a nationally representative probability sample. The fieldwork was conducted between March 27 and April 23, 2020, and resulted in a 51.6% response rate. The findings support the hypotheses that increased media exposure to COVID-19 news positively relates to people’s abidance by prevention measures and that perceived knowledge and fear mediate this relationship. However, the same hypotheses for interpersonal communication were not supported.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following research assistants for helping with the data collections: Ahmad Karakira, Dana Naamani, Hussein Kassab, Jana el Amin, and Rana Tabbara. We also wish to thank Dr. Carola Richter and Dr. Anna Antonakis for facilitating quick funding for the project.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through the Arab-European Association for Media and Communication Researchers (AREACORE)