Negotiating the media’s role during pandemics: recommendations for future preparedness

Introduction During periods of uncertainty, people’s desire for information increases.1 This was true for the COVID-19 pandemic, where news consumption increased significantly in 2020, aided by widespread lockdowns that compelled many people to stay at home for months on end, with uninterrupted access to news from the entire media spectrum.1 These conditions paved the way for an ‘infodemic’ characterised by a large volume of both new scientific information and false claims.2 The role of social media in spreading misinformation (false stories) and disinformation (intentionally false stories) has been well documented.2 However, news media organisations also played a major role in shaping people’s understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and decisions around health behaviours. [...]a study from the USA demonstrated how consumption of partisan news influenced their use of COVID-19 preventative behaviours, where the prioritisation of politically biased and economically focused narratives by news agencies harmed public health.3 Similar associations between news consumption and health behaviour have been found in Serbia and China which suggests that globally, media organisations play a critical role in influencing the uptake or rejection of health interventions during a pandemic.4 5 We argue that the news media’s role in global pandemic preparedness and response should receive more focus in pandemic preparedness dialogue. In countries with a more polarised political and media environment, partisan disinformation and populism have been linked, where populist actors disseminate misinformation through partisan media channels and encourage mistrust of expert knowledge.8 Moreover, since the rise of online media, and consequent almost collapse of traditional media organisations’ economic model in the form of print advertising, for-profit media houses have faced increasing financial pressures. Other potential solutions to reach broader audiences can include partnerships with local or community-level news outlets, involving public contributors from diverse communities (as is now a standard requirement in academic research) and social listening efforts to better reflect the concerns of the community in reporting.