Politicization and Polarization in COVID-19 News Coverage

This study examines the level of politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news in U.S. newspapers and televised network news from March to May 2020. Using multiple computer-assisted content analytic approaches, we find that newspaper coverage is highly politicized, network news coverage somewhat...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hart, P. Sol, Chinn, Sedona, Soroka, Stuart
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Research Note
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7447862/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1075547020950735
Descripción
Sumario:This study examines the level of politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news in U.S. newspapers and televised network news from March to May 2020. Using multiple computer-assisted content analytic approaches, we find that newspaper coverage is highly politicized, network news coverage somewhat less so, and both newspaper and network news coverage are highly polarized. We find that politicians appear in newspaper coverage more frequently than scientists, whereas politicians and scientists are more equally featured in network news. We suggest that the high degree of politicization and polarization in initial COVID-19 coverage may have contributed to polarization in U.S. COVID-19 attitudes.

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