Trusting and valuing news in a pandemic: Attitudes to online news media content during COVID-19 and policy implications

Abstract

While the global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to significant growth in news consumption, this did not translate into either greater trust or an improved financial situation for news providers. At a time when disinformation has become a key concern with regards to public health messaging, this mistrust of mainstream news media has potentially disastrous consequences for public communication in a time of urgent public health concerns. The article explores five issues for the study of news and trust, including the impact of digital platforms, the accountability revolution, the crisis of news media business models, the power-shift within media to platforms in the time of COVID-19, and the turn to subscription-based media. The latter raises critical issues around the value of news, and the future relationship between subscriptions, advertising revenue and public funding in the future of news publication and distribution.

Social Media, News Media, and the Democratic Deficit. Can the Blockchain Make a Difference?

“…The biggest hit has been taken by news media, including public service media, a system normatively not reliant on advertising and economic cycles, but nonetheless attacked by right-wing populist governments (Sehl et al 2022). In democracies around the world, news media have had to deal with an estimated 40% reduction in job losses following an already hard-hit period spanning several decades (Flew 2021b). This is despite the high demand in news due to a demonstrable newsworthiness of both the pandemic and the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.…”

“…Together, these factors contribute to the disorder of social media that ultimately deteriorates people's levels of trust in what they consume. Again, the exception to this trend is that trust levels have fared better with users who consume news from well-known and reputable news brands rather than via social media platforms (Newman et al 2021;Flew 2021b).…”

COVID-19 surveillance in Israeli press: Spatiality, mobility, and control

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, news organizations faced different challenges (e.g., falling advertisement revenues) that influenced editorial decisions and journalistic practices such as overly sensationalized coverage ( De Coninck et al, 2020 ). Consequently, while the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant growth in news consumption, it did not result in greater trust ( Flew, 2021 ). Indeed, recent studies confirm that citizens’ trust in both governments and news organizations as sources of information about the COVID-19 pandemic has declined significantly ( Fletcher et al., 2020 ).…”

Viral Information Pandemic As A Problem Of Modern Civilization

“…The modern media also draw their information from the same source. The problem of disinformation became especially acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, which determined the potentially catastrophic consequences for communication in society as a result of distrust of the media (Flew, 2021;Kolokytha & Rozgonyi, 2021;Richter, 2021).…”