Tenzin Shapheltsang
Fear is common in the news when a public health crisis occurs due to the nature of crises and the fact that negativity sells, causing the news to use fearful language. This fear changes how the public thinks and acts, and though fear can protect us from danger, the influence of the media can make a bad situation worse. You can look back to the infamous toilet paper shortages during COVID, the media making people panic buying toilet paper in the US and Canada when the original shortage was only in Australia.
(Russ Mohl, 2020)
Russ Mohl, S. (2020, November 30). Corona’s Orchestra of Panic: How the press fear-mongering is distorting information. European Journalism Observatory. https://en.ejo.ch/specialist-journalism/coronas-orchestra-of-panic-how-the-press-fear-mongering-is-distorting-information-about-covid-19
A study by Qian et al., 2024 explores what fear in media headlines does to people during crises by surveying people from 5 different English-speaking countries: the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, and India. It also examines community factors that may amplify or dampen people’s fears.
Is the news inherently bad?
Not all media is helpful, as “consumption of conservative media in the U.S. has been linked with the propagation of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and vaccine hesitancy” (Romer & Jamieson, 2020).
However, the news is a great way to inform yourself and learn about a crisis. The media plays a very important role during these crises in risk perception, the way people perceive and view the risks of a crisis or disease, and whether they’ll adopt preventative measures like masks or vaccination.
If you perceive it to be like the common cold, you won’t care to protect yourself. Looking back at previous outbreaks, such as Zika, H1N1, and early COVID-19, “consistently show that media exposure is positively associated with heightened risk perception” (Lin & Lagoe, 2013).
What the study entails
The survey would ask people about their risk perception of COVID and how dangerous they considered it to their community, as well as measures taken to protect themselves, such as how often they wore masks, washed their hands, and practiced social distancing.
The study tracked news globally, using keywords to find relevant articles related to the pandemic, which would then check articles “that include fear-related lexicons from the LIWC dictionary, such as “worry,” “fear,” “afraid,” and “nervous” (Qian et al., 2024).
The study results showed a worrying link between people’s adherence to protecting themselves and fear in the media. “In simpler terms, every additional 1% of fear-inducing language in media headlines is associated with a 56% decrease in adherence to social distancing, a 57% decrease in hand washing, and an 83% decrease in mask-wearing” (Qian et al., 2024).
Why does this matter to me?
This inherently matters because it relates to everyone’s health as a crisis. Fear can cause people to be skeptical of actual health protocols, such as being against vaccines or wearing a mask, further prolonging and spreading the disease. If fear in the media decreases people’s adherence to preventive measures, the disease will last longer, have a higher chance of spreading, and kill people, which is actively putting you at risk.
What needs to be done?
The link between fear in media headlines and people’s preventative measures means the need for new steps taken for risk communication.
The public needs to be made aware of the full risks and dangers of crises, as well as messages that provide the right knowledge and skills to tackle said crises so that people can follow these guidelines and protect themselves.
Regular updates are also important because they build trust with the people, so they aren’t confused by radio silence and will follow guidelines reliably. A community can add to the impact of fear from the media, so local public health must include local crisis statuses and resources.