“Media Diets” Influence Mental Health During COVID
Opinion-based media channels are found to be linked to poorer mental health
In an interview, UC Irvine social psychologist Nickolas Jones discussed the results and implications of his recent study which found that different arrays of news-“media diets” were related to differences in emotional outcomes and beliefs about COVID-19.
Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been the center of life on Earth as stay-at-home orders, mask protocols, and social distancing guidelines have dictated the lives of citizens around the world. While staying at home last spring, Americans were particularly interested in stories about COVID-19, and Google experienced the greatest spike in searches for “coronavirus” stories thus far.
During the spike, Jones conducted an online survey to evaluate the COVID-19 media diets of 6,500 Americans between March and April of 2020 and found relationships between a participant’s choice of media outlets and their emotional well-being.
Methods
He asked participants about their top three media outlets for COVID-19 and measured their levels of worry, anxiety, depression, and positive health behaviors. Machine-learning algorithms were used to evaluate the contents and impact of the news sources. Participants were not grouped into categories based on their identity. Instead, the media diets were evaluated on a continuum, such as liberal-conservative and opinion-fact based.
Results
His team found that Americans with opinion-based media diets reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety and worry than those with fact-based media diets. Additionally, people with liberal, opinion- based media diets such as MSNBC reported even higher levels of depression, anxiety, and worry. They also reported more positive health behaviors such as social distancing and mask wearing.
In contrast, those who consumed more conservative, opinion- based media such as Fox were less likely to report feeling high levels of depression, anxiety, and worry. However, these participants reported less positive health behaviors. Regardless of political orientation, it is important to note that not everyone is able to social distance, especially essential workers in healthcare, service, and manufacturing industries who worked to serve their communities during stay-at-home orders.
Discussion
To make sense of the results, Jones considered the way liberal and conservative channels report and interpret events. He said that liberal channels are more focused on reporting COVID-19’s impact on public health and more likely to show images of sick patients in hospitals. Conservative channels are more focused on reporting COVID-19’s economic impacts, such as the loss of jobs due to closed schools and businesses, as well as the need to “reopen the country” and get people back to work.
Jones said that although cases are higher in conservative regions of the United States due to less mask wearing and less social distancing, health protective behaviors did not increase even with greater threats of COVID-19.
It would make sense that when cases increase, people would change their behaviors to stop further spread. Jones speculates that when an individual, their neighbors, or their family members become infected and survive, they will be less likely to follow social distancing guidelines and wear masks. People can develop a false sense of immunity based on their experiences, and believe that others will also recover and survive.
He said, “There’s some recent analysis that we’re doing on a different paper. It turns out that, if you get COVID, even less likely to engage in health protective behaviors, because you got it, you survived, and it’s no big deal.” He added that some believe they can’t become reinfected because their body has already made antibodies that would protect against reinfection.
A psychological phenomenon called confirmation bias also plays a role in how people choose which news channels to watch. Across many domains, people tend to seek out information that aligns with their beliefs and overlook conflicting information. Thus, a person’s choice of channels will tend to reinforce their beliefs.
Jones was also worried about being over-exposed to media channels in general. Previous studies from his team have found that more media exposure during a collective trauma is related to poorer mental health outcomes, namely greater levels of depression and anxiety. Being over-exposed to scenes of people dying, increased case counts, and descriptions of the symptoms of COVID-19 could lead to poor mental health. This information triggers the body’s fear response, and our brains orient towards danger. Overactivation of these responses can lead to emotional exhaustion, depression, and anxiety.
Dr. Jones’s recommendation for healthier media usage is to cut out channels like FOX and CNN and instead choose channels like Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. According to the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart, channels like AP and Reuters have a high level of fact-based reporting and little to no opinion based analysis. He also recommends non-American news sources, such as BBC, which can present less biased views on the American situation.
As evidenced by Jones’ study on COVID-19 media exposure, the media channels we choose may influence our thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs. Carefully selecting high-quality news channels for our media diets allows us to stay well informed while maintaining our mental health.
“Media Diets” Influence Mental Health During COVID was originally published in Creatures of the Polis on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.