U.S Audiences' Perceptions of Covid-19 and Conservative News Frames

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative news downplayed the threat of the virus. Perceived risks of COVID-19 are an important factor in influencing citizens' willingness to comply with risk prevention measures. An online survey (N=269) of U.S. residents was conducted...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPartecipazione e conflitto Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 1180 - 1189
Main Authors Chock, T Makana, Se Jung Kim
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Milan ESE Salento University Publishing 01.01.2020
Coordinamento SIBA
Subjects
Audiences
Conservatism
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Internet
Left wing politics
News
news framing
Older people
Pandemics
Partisanship
Peers
political bias
Prevention
Prevention programs
Residents
Right wing politics
risk prevention
United States > US
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Summary:During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative news downplayed the threat of the virus. Perceived risks of COVID-19 are an important factor in influencing citizens' willingness to comply with risk prevention measures. An online survey (N=269) of U.S. residents was conducted March 30 - April 1, 2020. We found that those who used partisan conservative news sources as their primary source of information about the virus were significantly less likely to view it as a threat, compared to those who cited Far Left, Center Left, and Center Right news sources. Politically conservative Far Right news audiences reported significantly lower estimates of their own COVID-19 risk, as well as that of their age group peers, the average person in the U.S., and the average senior citizen in the U.S.
ISSN:1972-7623
2035-6609
DOI:10.1285/i20356609v13i2p1180