Public anxiety and distrust due to perceived politicization and media sensationalism during early COVID-19 media messaging

ABSTRACT

Background

Understanding early COVID-19 messaging is essential for improving future public health responses to pandemics. This study applied aspects of both media dependency theory and a source credibility framework to explore how COVID-19 pandemic messaging was perceived by the public within one month of COVID-19 being declared a pandemic.

Methods

We administered a cross-sectional, mixed methods online survey in March, 2020 to Pennsylvanian adults (N = 538) enrolled in a health network. Participants were 58% female, 56% with a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, and 50% from minority racial backgrounds.

Results

Thematic analysis revealed six major themes describing flawed messaging about the pandemic, with the resulting confusion, distrust, and anxiety leading to a desire for a single source of information. Distrust of both media and government arose from perceived contradictory messages, sensationalized messages, and information overload. Relationships between themes are mapped into a conceptual model, which demonstrates the destructive and cyclic relationship between the media and the public anxiety reported in our data.

Conclusions

Practical implications of our findings suggest that public health messaging initiatives should include solutions that seek to improve trust, source credibility and work to centralize, unify, and streamline delivery of information during a pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• trust
• communication
• mass media
• politics
• media dependency theory
• source credibility framework

Acknowledgements

Without the assistance of the following individuals and groups, the scope and scale of this project would not have been possible. We thank Stacy Beers, Amy Peiffer and the Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine Marketing teams, Susan Chobanoff, Neal Thomas, Leslie Parent, Sarah Bronson, and the Penn State Qualitative Mixed Methods Core. Finally, we thank Allison Gordon for helpful feedback on the manuscript draft and revision.

The views presented in this manuscript represent the authors’ interpretations of the study data and may not reflect personal views of authors, funding agencies, or authors’ institutions.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

De-identified data is available upon request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences; the Social Science Research Institute of the Pennsylvania State University; and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Penn State University College of Medicine.

Notes on contributors

Lauren Jodi Van Scoy

Dr. Lauren Jodi Van Scoy is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Qualitative Mixed Methods Core (QMMC) at Penn State College of Medicine (PSCOM).

Bethany Snyder

Ms. Bethany Snyder is a qualitative research project manager for the Qualitative Mixed Methods Core at PSCOM.

Erin L. Miller

Ms. Erin L. Miller is a Research Project Manager at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at PSCOM.

Olubukola Toyobo

Ms. Olubukola Toyobo is a medical student and a qualitative research assistant for the Qualitative Mixed Methods Core at PSCOM.

Ashmita Grewel

Ms. Ashmita Grewal is a Master’s of Public Health student at PSCOM.

Giang Ha

Mr. Giang Ha is a medical student at PSCOM.

Sarah Gillespie

Ms. Sarah Gillespie is a medical student at PSCOM.

Megha Patel

Ms. Megha Patel is a medical student at PSCOM.

Jordyn Reilly

Ms. Jordyn Reilly is a qualitative research assistant for the Qualitative Mixed Methods Core at PSCOM.

Aleksandra E. Zgierska

Dr. Aleksandra E. Zgierska is a Professor and Vice Chair of Research at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at PSCOM.

Robert P. Lennon

Dr. Robert P. Lennon is an Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at PSCOM.