Traumatization, Not Habituation: The Impact of a Long Lockdown on Mental Health and the Role of Media Use (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech population experienced a second lockdown lasting for about half a year, restricting free movement, and imposing social isolation. It is not known whether the impact of the long lockdown resulted in habituation to the adverse situation or in the traumatization of the Czech population, and whether the media and its specific use contributed to these processes. OBJECTIVE This study aimed at elucidating the effect of the long lockdown on the mental health of the Czech population, and the role of exposure to COVID-19 news reports and specific forms of media news use in mental health. METHODS We conducted two consecutive surveys in the early (November 2020) and late (March/April 2021) phases of the nationwide lockdown on the same nationally representative group of Czech adults (N = 1,777) participating in a longitudinal panel study. RESULTS Our findings show that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression increased in the second observed period, whereby confirming the negative effect of the pandemic lockdown as it unfolded, suggesting that restrictive measures and continuous exposure to a collective stressor did not result in strengthening of resilience but rather in ongoing traumatization. The results also suggest a negative role of the media’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in mental health during the early, and particularly late phase of the lockdown. Furthermore, we found several risk and protective factors of specific media news use. The media practice in news consumption connected to social media use was the strongest predictor of exacerbated mental health symptoms, particularly in the late phase of the lockdown. Also, news media use characterized by internalization of information learned from the news, as well as negative attitudes towards media news, were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. On the other hand, the use of infotainment, together with an in-depth and contextual style of reading news articles, were related to improvement of mental health. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that the long lockdown resulted in traumatization rather than habituation, and in more pronounced effects (both negative and positive) of media use in mental health.

The Relationship among COVID-19 Information Seeking, News Media Use, and Emotional Distress at the Onset of the Pandemic

Although several theories posit that information seeking is related to better psychological health, this logic may not apply to a pandemic like COVID-19. Given uncertainty inherent to the novel virus, we expect that information seeking about COVID-19 will be positively associated with emotional distress. Additionally, we consider the type of news media from which individuals receive information—television, newspapers, and social media—when examining relationships with emotional distress. Using a U.S. national survey, we examine: (1) the link between information seeking about COVID-19 and emotional distress, (2) the relationship between reliance on television, newspapers, and social media as sources for news and emotional distress, and (3) the interaction between information seeking and use of these news media sources on emotional distress. Our findings show that seeking information about COVID-19 was significantly related to emotional distress. Moreover, even after accounting for COVID-19 information seeking, consuming news via television and social media was tied to increased distress, whereas consuming newspapers was not significantly related to greater distress. Emotional distress was most pronounced among individuals high in information seeking and television news use, whereas the association between information seeking and emotional distress was not moderated by newspapers or social media news use.

Thinking, checking and learning: testing a moderated-mediation model of social media news use conditional upon elaboration on political knowledge via fact-checking

PurposeEmploying the cognitive mediation model, the study aims to examine a moderated-mediation mechanism of social media news use contingent upon elaboration on political knowledge through fact-checking – specifically, the interaction effect of social media news with elaboration on fact-checking.Design/methodology/approachThe moderated-mediation model is tested using panel survey data collected during the 2016 USA presidential election (N = 1,624 at Wave 1; N = 637 at Wave 2).FindingsThe findings reveal that social media news users are frequent visitors of fact-checking websites. Results also suggest that those with increased social media news use and cognitive elaboration on news content are more likely to visit fact-checking sites, which contributes to increased political knowledge.Originality/valueThe results of the current study, especially in the era of social media environment where various information is overflowing, suggest an important role of individuals' responsibility as democratic citizens given that people's cognitive elaboration and surveillance efforts, which tries to think about important public issues they consume through media, could strengthen a positive pathway toward informed citizens.

The Onset of Habituation Effects

While extraordinary events like pandemics may prompt an increase in information-seeking behaviour, such trends are unlikely to be sustainable. Over time, issue fatigue/overdose is expected to set in. This study employed generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs) to determine whether attention to TV news corresponded with real-world developments. We sought to predict news use in Germany during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic based on disease occurrence next to two well-established predictors of news use (total TV use and day of the week). The association of key events with news use was also assessed. Initially, news use increased with disease occurrence. However, as the pandemic progressed, the linkage between the two variables weakened considerably, suggesting the onset of a habituation effect. Some support emerged for the idea that key events increased news use. Overall, our results are more in line with the explanation provided by agenda-setting theory and various information-seeking models than with the notion of coping through information avoidance. Thus, how the pandemic progresses appears to be a good predictor of news use at the aggregate level, although its predictive power decreases over time.

Fueling civil disobedience in democracy: WhatsApp news use, political knowledge, and illegal political protest

Prior scholarship has consistently shown that informed citizens tend to better understand government actions, expectations, and priorities, potentially mitigating radicalism such as partaking in illegal protest. However, the role of social media may prove this relationship to be challenging, with an increasingly pervasive use of applications such as WhatsApp for information and mobilization. Findings from a two-wave US panel survey data show that WhatsApp news is negatively associated to political knowledge and positively associated to illegal protest. Less politically knowledgeable citizens also tend to engage in illegal protest more frequently. Results also suggest an influential role of political knowledge in mediating the effects of WhatsApp news over illegal protests. Those who consume more news on WhatsApp tend to know less about politics which, in turn, positively relates to unlawful political protest activities. This study suggests that WhatsApp affordances provide fertile paths to nurture illegal political protest participation.

Digital media and university political practices in the public sphere

In a predominantly digital communicative context, the political practices of young university students are relevant for the vitality of public spheres and the consolidation of participatory democracy. The objective of this study was to learn how the use of digital media relates to the political talk and participation practices of university students. Using quota sampling, a survey was conducted among 435 undergraduate students residing in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey, Mexico, during the second semester of 2020. Among these students with favorable access to digital media, positive correlations with small to moderate and statistically significant magnitudes were found between the various uses of digital media and their political practices. News use was moderately correlated with political talk, as was social use with politically motivated activities, and creative use with all forms of participation. Political talk mainly affected the relationship between participation and news use. These findings support the relevance of the active role of young people in their political socialization, as social interaction and content creation were more closely correlated with political participation than news consumption was, which was more beneficial to participation when articulated through political talk. En un contexto comunicativo predominantemente digital, las prácticas políticas de los jóvenes universitarios son de importancia para la vitalidad de las esferas públicas y la consolidación de la democracia participativa. El objetivo de este estudio fue conocer cómo se relaciona el uso de los medios digitales con las prácticas de conversación y participación políticas de los universitarios. Mediante un muestreo por cuotas, se realizó una encuesta a 435 estudiantes de nivel licenciatura residentes en la Zona Metropolitana de Monterrey, México, durante el segundo semestre de 2020. Entre estos estudiantes con acceso favorecedor a los medios digitales, se encontraron correlaciones positivas con magnitudes de pequeñas a moderadas y estadísticamente significativas entre los diversos usos de los medios digitales y sus prácticas políticas. El uso noticioso se correlacionó moderadamente con la conversación política, así como el uso social con las actividades políticamente motivadas, y el uso creativo con todas las formas de participación. La conversación política incidió principalmente en la relación entre la participación y el uso noticioso. Estos hallazgos respaldan la relevancia del papel activo de los jóvenes en su socialización política, pues la interacción social y la creación de contenidos se relacionaron más estrechamente con la participación política que el consumo de noticias, el cual fue más provechoso para la participación al articularse a través de la conversación política.

Social News Use & Citizen Participation among Young Activists in Singapore

This article presents a study of how civically engaged young adults engage with news on social media, within the context of a developing democracy – Singapore. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 young activists, it discusses how they approach social media as a source of news, what motivates them to engage in more than one social news platform, and how social news use fits into their political lexicon. The results reveal that despite their affinity towards news-related content on social media, they are neither partial towards mainstream, nor alternative news providers on this medium. Their primary social news platform is perceived to offer the best means to disseminate news-related information. However, they are also concerned about their privacy and practice certain strategies to mitigate this. Despite its drawbacks, the activists accept social news use as a viable means of political socialisation and mobilisation.

Populist alternative news use and its role for elections: Web-tracking and survey evidence from two campaign periods

This study explores voters’ populist alternative news use during (different types of) democratic elections and investigates starting points for preventing potentially harmful effects. We draw from two combined data sets of web-tracking and survey data which were collected during the 2017 German Bundestag campaign (1523 participants) and the 2019 European Parliamentary election campaign in Germany (1009 participants). Results indicate that while populist alternative news outlets drew more interest during the first-order election campaign, they reached only 16.5% of users even then. Moreover, most users visited their websites rather seldom. Nonetheless, our data suggest that alternative news exposure is strongly linked to voting for (right-wing) populist parties. Regarding the origins of exposure, our analyses punctuate the role of platforms in referring users to populist alternative news. About 40% of website visits originated from Facebook alone in both data sets and another third of visits from search engines. This raises questions about algorithmic accountability.