From Lower Disease Risk Perception to Higher News Avoidance: Analysis of News Consumption and Attitude Toward COVID-19 News in Latvia

Abstract

Recognizing that regular information during a pandemic helps societies navigate through a period of insecurity, the aim of this study is to understand how news about different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic affects the attitude of media audiences towards news. This study seeks to explain the society’s news consumption and the attitude towards COVID-19 news in Latvia linking it to self-evaluation of the perceived disease risk. A national survey data (September 2020, N=1,005) analysis shows a statistically significant but weak correlation between disease risk self-evaluation and the attitude towards pandemic news. Respondents who rate the risk of the disease as higher and real are more interested in news, consume news to create a sense of security, feel less fatigue towards news, and are less likely to avoid COVID-19 news. Respondents who believe that the risk of illness is low and unreal, are less interested in news, feel more tired, avoid the news more often.