Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries

Peter Van Aelst; Fanni Toth; Laia Castro; Václav Štětka; Claes de Vreese; Toril Aalberg; Ana Sofia Cardenal; Nicoleta Corbu; Frank Esser; David Nicolas Hopmann; Karolina Koc-Michalska; Jörg Matthes; Christian Schemer; Tamir Sheafer; Sergio Splendore; James Stanyer; Agnieszka Stępińska; Jesper Strömbäck; Yannis Theocharis

doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries

Peter Van Aelst, Fanni Toth, Laia Castro, Václav Štětka, Claes de Vreese, Toril Aalberg, Ana Sofia Cardenal, Nicoleta Corbu, Frank Esser, David Nicolas Hopmann, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Jörg Matthes, Christian Schemer, Tamir Sheafer, Sergio Splendore, James Stanyer, Agnieszka Stępińska, Jesper Strömbäck, Yannis Theocharis

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic unleashes multiple fundamental questions about society beyond public health. Based on the classical concept of ‘need for orientation’ and the literature on the role of the media in times of crisis, we investigate to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected news consumption in comparative perspective. Based on a two-wave panel survey in 17 mostly European countries, our study targets the role of both legacy news brands (TV, radio, newspapers) and so-called contemporary news media (Internet-based and social media) during this global health crisis. Our results show an overall rise of news use across countries, but only for some types of news media. We find an increase of TV news consumption, and a higher reliance on social media and the Internet for news and information. This indicates that in times of crises and an unusually strong need for orientation, people mainly turn to news sources that are easily available and offer a more immediate coverage. Furthermore, we find the rise in news use to be mainly present among those who already have a higher level of trust in legacy media and among people that were more concerned about the impact of the pandemic.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1316-1346
Number of pages	31
Journal	Digital Journalism
Volume	9
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481
State	Published - 2021

Keywords

Media use
comparative survey
health crisis
media trust

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Communication

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

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Van Aelst, P., Toth, F., Castro, L., Štětka, V., Vreese, C. D., Aalberg, T., Cardenal, A. S., Corbu, N., Esser, F., Hopmann, D. N., Koc-Michalska, K., Matthes, J., Schemer, C., Sheafer, T., Splendore, S., Stanyer, J., Stępińska, A., Strömbäck, J., & Theocharis, Y. (2021). Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries. Digital Journalism, 9(9), 1316-1346. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

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title = "Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries",

abstract = "Exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic unleashes multiple fundamental questions about society beyond public health. Based on the classical concept of {\textquoteleft}need for orientation{\textquoteright} and the literature on the role of the media in times of crisis, we investigate to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected news consumption in comparative perspective. Based on a two-wave panel survey in 17 mostly European countries, our study targets the role of both legacy news brands (TV, radio, newspapers) and so-called contemporary news media (Internet-based and social media) during this global health crisis. Our results show an overall rise of news use across countries, but only for some types of news media. We find an increase of TV news consumption, and a higher reliance on social media and the Internet for news and information. This indicates that in times of crises and an unusually strong need for orientation, people mainly turn to news sources that are easily available and offer a more immediate coverage. Furthermore, we find the rise in news use to be mainly present among those who already have a higher level of trust in legacy media and among people that were more concerned about the impact of the pandemic.",

keywords = "Media use, comparative survey, health crisis, media trust",

author = "{Van Aelst}, Peter and Fanni Toth and Laia Castro and V{\'a}clav {\v S}t{\v e}tka and Vreese, {Claes de} and Toril Aalberg and Cardenal, {Ana Sofia} and Nicoleta Corbu and Frank Esser and Hopmann, {David Nicolas} and Karolina Koc-Michalska and J{\"o}rg Matthes and Christian Schemer and Tamir Sheafer and Sergio Splendore and James Stanyer and Agnieszka St{\c e}pi{\'n}ska and Jesper Str{\"o}mb{\"a}ck and Yannis Theocharis",

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year = "2021",

doi = "https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481",

language = "الإنجليزيّة",

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Van Aelst, P, Toth, F, Castro, L, Štětka, V, Vreese, CD, Aalberg, T, Cardenal, AS, Corbu, N, Esser, F, Hopmann, DN, Koc-Michalska, K, Matthes, J, Schemer, C, Sheafer, T, Splendore, S, Stanyer, J, Stępińska, A, Strömbäck, J & Theocharis, Y 2021, 'Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries', Digital Journalism, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 1316-1346. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

TY - JOUR

T1 - Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries

AU - Van Aelst, Peter

AU - Toth, Fanni

AU - Castro, Laia

AU - Štětka, Václav

AU - Vreese, Claes de

AU - Aalberg, Toril

AU - Cardenal, Ana Sofia

AU - Corbu, Nicoleta

AU - Esser, Frank

AU - Hopmann, David Nicolas

AU - Koc-Michalska, Karolina

AU - Matthes, Jörg

AU - Schemer, Christian

AU - Sheafer, Tamir

AU - Splendore, Sergio

AU - Stanyer, James

AU - Stępińska, Agnieszka

AU - Strömbäck, Jesper

AU - Theocharis, Yannis

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic unleashes multiple fundamental questions about society beyond public health. Based on the classical concept of ‘need for orientation’ and the literature on the role of the media in times of crisis, we investigate to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected news consumption in comparative perspective. Based on a two-wave panel survey in 17 mostly European countries, our study targets the role of both legacy news brands (TV, radio, newspapers) and so-called contemporary news media (Internet-based and social media) during this global health crisis. Our results show an overall rise of news use across countries, but only for some types of news media. We find an increase of TV news consumption, and a higher reliance on social media and the Internet for news and information. This indicates that in times of crises and an unusually strong need for orientation, people mainly turn to news sources that are easily available and offer a more immediate coverage. Furthermore, we find the rise in news use to be mainly present among those who already have a higher level of trust in legacy media and among people that were more concerned about the impact of the pandemic.

AB - Exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic unleashes multiple fundamental questions about society beyond public health. Based on the classical concept of ‘need for orientation’ and the literature on the role of the media in times of crisis, we investigate to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected news consumption in comparative perspective. Based on a two-wave panel survey in 17 mostly European countries, our study targets the role of both legacy news brands (TV, radio, newspapers) and so-called contemporary news media (Internet-based and social media) during this global health crisis. Our results show an overall rise of news use across countries, but only for some types of news media. We find an increase of TV news consumption, and a higher reliance on social media and the Internet for news and information. This indicates that in times of crises and an unusually strong need for orientation, people mainly turn to news sources that are easily available and offer a more immediate coverage. Furthermore, we find the rise in news use to be mainly present among those who already have a higher level of trust in legacy media and among people that were more concerned about the impact of the pandemic.

KW - Media use

KW - comparative survey

KW - health crisis

KW - media trust

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111692851&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1943481

M3 - مقالة

SN - 2167-0811

VL - 9

SP - 1316

EP - 1346

JO - Digital Journalism

JF - Digital Journalism

IS - 9

ER -

Does a Crisis Change News Habits? A Comparative Study of the Effects of COVID-19 on News Media Use in 17 European Countries

Abstract

Keywords

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

UN SDGs

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