#EthicsMatter - Public trust in the media during the pandemic: Communication lessons
The role of news media during a national and global crisis (Holladay, 2010; Pan & Wen et al., 2020), such as the Covid-19 pandemic, is of importance to communication professionals involved in disseminating crisis-related messages. Media also is of paramount importance to health risk communicators, who are at the forefront of the dissemination of public health risk information.
News media can shape citizens’ perceptions of what issues are important and thus influence their understanding of and responses to issues (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). But these effects of the media depend on how much people trust the media (Suiter & Fletcher, 2020). Trust is an essential coping mechanism people lean on when they lack sufficient information or expertise to make an objective decision, such as to follow health recommendations (Siegrist & Cvetkovich, 2000).
In times of health crises, it has been repeatedly shown that trust in the source of risk information, such as governments and health experts, have a strong influence over people’s willingness to follow public health rules and guidelines, which are particularly important to control infection spread and mortality (Bargain & Aminjonov, 2020). A source tends to be trusted when he or she (or an institution) is seen to be credible, honest and have appropriate knowledge and expertise to provide correct and accurate information.
When a new infectious disease begins to spread, normally there is limited knowledge about it, such as how it spreads and how serious it is for public health. Because of potential life-threatening situations caused by these diseases, people will start seeking information to increase their knowledge on the matter and improve the quality of their decisions. But not all information, and the sources of that information, are equally credible. Those sources that have earned high public trust will be preferred.
While public trust in news media has risen slightly on a global average throughout the recent pandemic, it is still quite low in some countries such as the USA and UK. This has implications for communication professionals disseminating Covid-19 information via the media. Media are considered a third-party validator of original messages and when this validation effect breaks down, people are more skeptical of media reports. However, news media which enjoy high public trust can enhance an organization’s overall credibility when publishing or broadcasting the organizations’ messages in their news reports.
Effect of media trust on knowledge, attitudes and behaviours during a pandemic
So what affects people’s trust in the media? Research shows that diversity of contents, opinions and sources in news stories are contributing factors. So are people’s perceptions of objectivity, fairness, and balance in news reporting.
But in times of global crises, such as the current pandemic, what effects does varying levels of media trust have on public attitudes? And more specifically, how does this impact how people cope with the pandemic? In our research project at Jyväskylaä University School of Business and Economics, we began to investigate how much varying levels of trust in media influenced people’s knowledge, attitudes and their behaviours (e.g., their vaccination uptake levels), in relation to Covid-19. We conducted a cross-national survey with 3000 adults during late 2020 in Australia, Finland, Italy, South Korea, Sweden and USA.
Credibility of media conveying Covid-19 information
We asked respondents to indicate how credible the Covid-19 news stories from news media in their respective countries have been (using a scale from 1 to 7, with 1=not at all, and 7= completely). Of all the six countries, Australian respondents were the most satisfied with the news coverage, indicating that they found the Covid-19 news very credible. On the contrary, Italian respondents showed the lowest level of news credibility. Note that news credibility was measured in relation to Covid-19 news content, not as a general assessment of the level of media trust in these countries.
Diversity of Covid-19 information sources in news reports
Next, we asked people to evaluate whether news media in their countries have cited different sources when covering Covid-19. Source diversity measures the extent to which journalists cite different social, political, institutional and civic actors when discussing Covid-19. This should be considered a fair parameter to assess balance in news stories. Our survey found that Australians and Italians perceive their news media gave visibility to a wide variety of sources, compared to the Nordic countries.
However, the fact that news media covered and cited different sources when reporting on Covid-19 does not necessarily mean there was diversity in opinions and contents in news reports. We asked respondents to tell us how frequently they read or heard about different opinions on Covid-19 in news media and how frequently the opinions on Covid-19 in news media differed from their own. Among the six countries, Italians perceived their media to have the greatest range of Covid-19 opinion diversity while Swedes, in contrast, did not think there was such a diversity of opinions.
Diversity of Covid-19 content in news reports
We also asked whether respondents believe that their countries’ news media have covered a range of different topics related to Covid-19. Here again, Italians indicated that their national news media covered a diverse range of Covid-19 topics, whereas Finns and Swedes felt that there was less diversity of Covid-19 content in their countries’ media reports. Nordic people tend to think their news media coverage has not emphasized content diversity particularly when discussing Covid-19. This does not mean there was no content diversity, but rather that the diversity was not perceived to be high.
Covid-19 knowledge uncertainty
Finally, we asked people to tell us if they felt they possessed sufficient knowledge about Covid-19 to cope with the pandemic. We were interested to correlate their opinions on diversity of sources, content and opinions with how they felt about their overall Covid-19 knowledge. The higher their knowledge uncertainty, the less they felt they possessed sufficient information to know what to expect and do during the pandemic. Our results show that citizens who perceived lower levels of diversity of sources, content and opinions– thus perception of more homogeneity in news coverage - indicated they felt they had sufficient knowledge to cope with the pandemic. This was the case in Finland and Sweden, for instance. On the contrary, perceptions of greater source, content and opinion diversity resulted in more confusion and more uncertainty on what to do, as indicated in the results of Italian respondents.
Key takeaways
What does all this mean?
Taking these diversity factors all together, it may seem a contradiction that Nordic audiences have high trust in their media and yet they did not see much diversity in news media coverage of Covid-19 during 2020 (especially in Finland and Sweden). One possible explanation for this is the specific situation – Covid-19 – which may have influenced the way news media tended to select official and authoritative sources, opinions and content instead of giving visibility to marginalized, less authoritative voices. Not knowing much about the virus (e.g., its origin, how it spread, and its health impact), news media have understandably relied on authoritative and science-based sources to report about something that, during the first year, was still not very well known.
Overall, our study shows that in times of crises, by reducing diversity, news media have increased the credibility of the sources they cite, as the likelihood of divergent opinions and positions on Covid-19 decrease when less sources are given voice to present their views. News outlets doing this supported public understanding and acceptance of health authorities’ messages, leading to what we normally call an information cascade. "An informational cascade occurs when it is optimal for an individual, having observed the actions of those ahead of him, to follow the behavior of the preceding individual without regard to his own information" (Bikhchandani et al., 1992: 994).
Paradoxically, news media who were perceived to focus less on source, content and opinion diversity helped the general public to feel more informed and prepared to know how to cope with the pandemic than those news media which gave voice to a multitude of sources, opinions and types of contents. These media outlets offering more diversity in their coverage of Covid-19, while offering a great service to democracy and citizens’ right to know about all different positions and perspectives on Covid-19, have unfortunately not contributed to helping citizens cognitively cope with the pandemic, and who may have felt overwhelmed by this diversity and subsequently were uncertain about who to trust.
As things have substantially changed since late 2020 when our study was conducted, we are now awaiting results from a new survey in the next few months so that we can compare, across the six countries, media trust and perceptions of diversity of content, opinions and sources. Our aim is to better understand the role of news media in the management of pandemic communication across multiple countries.
Autors:
Chiara Valentini, Professor of Corporate Communication at Jyväskylä University School of Business & Economics, Finland.
Mark Badham is Senior Lecturer in Corporate Communication, Jyväskylä University School of Business & Economics, Finland.
Any thoughts or opinions expressed are that of the authors and not of Global Alliance.