COVID-19 Media Coverage Drives Depressive Symptoms
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The COVID-19 pandemic saturated U.S. news media in the spring of 2020, and the effects of viewer consumption are just starting to be understood. New research in the British Journal of Health Psychology from Ayokunle Olagoke, PhD in Community Health Sciences student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health, illustrates an association between mainstream news consumption during the pandemic and experiences of depression among viewers.
“These messages may be helpful in making people comply with pre-emptive measures, but it’s a double-edged sword,” Olagoke said. “We need to look at how we can use data to communicate this to the media to address possible solutions.”
As an expert in health communication, Olagoke says media messages on health issues can fall into two categories: positive frame and negative frame. Negative frame messages focus on the negative consequences of a health issue while positive frames promote actions to mitigate a health challenge. In this study, “Exposure to coronavirus news on mainstream media: The role of risk perceptions and depression,” Olagoke and co-authors Dr. Olakanmi Olagoke, internal medicine resident at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, and Ashley Hughes, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical and health information sciences at the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences, show how media messages on COVID-19 have promoted perceived vulnerability, which is a significant mediator of depressive symptoms and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
“I think the media is often torn between providing unbiased factual information and distorting the facts to get viewers’ attention, and that is could be a reason they keep trotting out the negatively framed messages,” Olagoke said. “I think we need more stringent guidelines on how to deliver pandemic-related news, balancing information on perceived vulnerability of viewers and their perceived self-efficacy to take control of their health.”
Olagoke argues media coverage should include strategies to practice preventive behavior as a way to reduce depressive symptoms. Messages on using a mask or practicing physical distancing should be backed up with anecdotes of people who have stayed safe during the pandemic. Olagoke notes many personal profiles have focused on COVID-19 survivors and the travails of their medical experiences.
She notes the World Health Organization offers some guidelines for delivering health news, but those guidelines are insufficient for a global pandemic. The need for ethics is heightened by the fact that even with the rise of informal news platforms like social media, Americans generally have a few trusted news sources that include mainstream media. She suggests news outlets should consider interventions for mental health wellness that could be delivered as a form of teletherapy.
Olagoke wonders if the prolonged exposure to negatively framed messages can cause viewers to develop a thick skin against the fear of the pandemic such that perceived vulnerability starts to wear off. She thinks this may have given rise to the recent outcry by Americans for an end to the lockdown despite the pandemic still being on a high rampage. She questions whether constant exposure to news promoting high levels of vulnerability may become protective from vulnerability over time.
“Public health can’t afford to work in isolation at this particular time, our research findings should not be the exclusive preserve of the academic community,” Olagoke said. “There needs to be a collaborative effort between the media and public health in creating a pandemic news equilibrium using plain languages for the common man to understand.”