Abstract

This study sought to theorize the crisis coverage gap, a new way of understanding the divide between public information needs and local digital news coverage during a crisis, through the context of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. We used a three-wave panel survey of Americans (n = 730) and analyses of local news posted on Facebook (n = 2,632) at three points during the early pandemic to illustrate how the crisis coverage gap operates. Findings demonstrate a clear divide between the news the public wanted about the pandemic and what local media delivered on Facebook. Specifically, the media over-delivered economic and business news relative to public interest. It left the public wanting for news about how grocery stores were responding to the pandemic and for fact cheques ascertaining the truthfulness of information about the crisis. Earlier in the pandemic, coverage of schools’ responses was in line with expectations based on how interested people were, but later they were over-covered, relative to interest.

摘要

本研究旨在通过 2020 年 COVID-19 大流行的背景，对危机报道差距进行理论化，这是一种理解危机期间公共信息需求与本地数字新闻报道之间鸿沟的新方法。我们使用了三波小组调查美国人 ( n  = 730) 和对大流行初期三个时间点发布在 Facebook ( n  = 2,632) 上的当地新闻的分析，以说明危机覆盖率差距如何运作。调查结果表明，公众想要的关于大流行的新闻与当地媒体在 Facebook 上发布的内容之间存在明显的差异。具体而言，媒体过度传播了与公共利益相关的经济和商业新闻。它让公众想要了解杂货店如何应对这一流行病的新闻，并希望通过事实核查来确定有关危机的信息的真实性。在大流行的早期，学校反应的覆盖范围与基于人们感兴趣程度的预期一致，但后来相对于兴趣而言，它们被过度覆盖了。