Abstract

This article analyses news sources used by women to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK parenting website Mumsnet. By using a non-political online “third space” aimed at women, Mumsnetters are able to avoid the aggression women face when they attempt to discuss news in the wider public sphere of the Internet. This third space can also act as a “trusted friend,” allowing women to access important news via a third party. Mumsnetters’ discussion of the news around COVID-19 complicates previous studies’ findings that women prefer to discuss news relating to health, education and the local community rather than politics and international affairs. Mumsnetters discuss the COVID-19 pandemic as both a health story and a political story. They use mainly digital journalism sources, either directly from the mainstream news media or indirectly via social media such as Twitter, thus participating in a hybrid media system. However, some Mumsnet discussants demonstrate a hostility and distrust towards mainstream news sources, even suggesting collusion between the media and the UK government, which has implications for the clear dissemination of government messages around the pandemic.

摘要

本文分析了英国育儿网站 Mumsnet 上女性用来讨论 COVID-19 大流行的新闻来源。通过使用针对女性的非政治性在线“第三空间”，Mumsnetters 能够避免女性在尝试在更广泛的互联网公共领域讨论新闻时面临的攻击性。这个第三空间也可以充当“值得信赖的朋友”，让女性可以通过第三方获取重要新闻。Mumsnetters 关于 COVID-19 新闻的讨论使之前的研究结果复杂化，即女性更喜欢讨论与健康、教育和当地社区有关的新闻，而不是政治和国际事务。Mumsnetters 将 COVID-19 大流行作为一个健康故事和一个政治故事来讨论。他们主要使用数字新闻资源，要么直接来自主流新闻媒体，要么间接通过 Twitter 等社交媒体，从而参与混合媒体系统。然而，一些 Mumsnet 讨论者表现出对主流新闻来源的敌意和不信任，甚至暗示媒体与英国政府之间存在勾结，这对政府围绕大流行的信息的明确传播产生了影响。