Understanding Australian Government Risk Communication Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sociodemographics, Risk Attitudes and Media Consumption

Abstract

Effective risk communication is essential for government and health authorities to effectively manage public health during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding the factors that influence people’s perceptions of crisis-related risk messages is critical to identify gaps and inequalities in population risk communication. Using a longitudinal survey of a representative adult sample, we examined risk communication about COVID-19 during April-June 2020 in Australia across sociodemographic groups especially the at-risk groups, accounting for and exploring the effects of risk attitudes and media engagement. Our findings showed that individuals who were younger, more left-wing, more risk-tolerant, and had a current or a history of mental disorders perceived risk communication of the Australian Government to be lower quality. On the other hand, greater consumption of information from televisions was found to be associated with more positive attitudes toward government risk communication. Our results also revealed the importance of effective and high-quality risk communication in gaining the public endorsement of various public health directions. We discuss the implications of results in terms of the development of effective public communications that lead to health-protective behaviors and effectively scaffold public understanding of risk.

Acknowledgments

We thank the team involved in the study, which included Amy Dawel, Kristen Murray, Alison Calear, Rachael Rodney Harris, Nicolas Cherbuin, Alyssa Morse, Michelle Banfield and Sonia McCallum. YS was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA) DE180100015. LMF is supported by ARC DECRA DE190101382. The study is a part of the Australian National COVID-19 Mental Health, Behaviour and Risk Communication Survey (more details are available at http://quicklink.anu.edu.au/7mia). The materials used are referred or described in this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Sharing

Data associated with this study are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the ANU College of Health and Medicine, ANU Research School of Psychology, and ANU Research School of Population Health.