Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Covid-19 and the Media

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

Abstract

This chapter describes the growing literature on the effects of media on Covid-19-related outcomes. First, it discusses the papers related to traditional media. In particular, it discusses the literature that studies the effect of public messages, misinformation, and slanted media on health behaviors and health outcomes. Second, it discusses papers that highlight the role of social media content and social media users’ networks in the spread of information, formation of social norms, and transmission of diseases. It concludes with a discussion of how the pandemic, in turn, shapes the media.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adena M, Enikolopov R, Petrova M, Santarosa V, Zhuravskaya E (2015) Radio and the rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany. Q J Econ 130(4):1885–1939

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aguilar-Gomez S, Arceo-Gomez EO, De la Cruz Toledo E, Torres López PJ (2021) Leadership, public health messaging, and containment of mobility in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. Documentos de Trabajo LACEA 018893, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association – LACEA

    Google Scholar 

  • Ajzenman N, Cavalcanti T, Da Mata D (2020) More than words: leaders’ speech and risky behavior during a pandemic. Available at SSRN 3582908

    Google Scholar 

  • Allcott H, Gentzkow M, Yu C (2019) Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media. Res Polit 6(2):2053168019848554

    Google Scholar 

  • Allcott H, Boxell L, Conway J, Gentzkow M, Thaler M, Yang D (2020) Polarization and public health: partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. J Public Econ 191:104254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allcott H, Gentzkow M, Song L (2021) Digital addiction. National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Almond D (2006) Is the 1918 influenza pandemic over? Long-term effects of in utero influenza exposure in the post-1940 US population. J Polit Econ 114(4):672–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alsan M, Wanamaker M (2018) Tuskegee and the health of black men. Q J Econ 133(1):407–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amit S, Regev-Yochay G, Afek A, Kreiss Y, Leshem E (2021) Early rate reductions of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 in BNT162b2 vaccine recipients. Lancet 397(10277):875–877

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ananyev M, Poyker M, Tian Y (2021) The safest time to fly: pandemic response in the era of Fox News. J Popul Econ 34(3):775–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson RM, Heesterbeek H, Klinkenberg D, Déirdre T, Hollingsworth. (2020) How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic? Lancet 395(10228):931–934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armitage R (2021) Online ‘anti-vax’ campaigns and COVID-19: censorship is not the solution. Public Health 190:e29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ash E, Poyker M (2019) Conservative news media and criminal justice: evidence from exposure to Fox News channel. Columbia Business School Research Paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Ash E, Galletta S, Hangartner D, Margalit Y, Pinna M (2020) The effect of Fox News on health behavior during COVID-19. Available at SSRN 3636762

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey M, Johnston DM, Koenen M, Kuchler T, Russel D, Stroebel J (2020) Social networks shape beliefs and behavior: evidence from social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee A, Alsan M, Breza E, Chandrasekhar AG, Chowdhury A, Duflo E, Goldsmith-Pinkham P, Olken BA (2020) Messages on COVID-19 prevention in India increased symptoms reporting and adherence to preventive behaviors among 25 million recipients with similar effects on non-recipient members of their communities. National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Beach B, Clay K, Saavedra MH (2022) The 1918 influenza pandemic and its lessons for COVID-19 J Econ Literature 60(1):41–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Besley T, Dray S (2020) The political economy of lockdown: does free media make a difference? mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Bracewell L (2021) Gender, populism, and the QAnon conspiracy movement. Front Sociol 5:615727

    Google Scholar 

  • Breza E, Stanford FC, Alsan M, Alsan B, Banerjee A, Chandrasekhar AG, Eichmeyer S, Glushko T, Goldsmith-Pinkham P, Holland K et al (2021) Effects of a large-scale social media advertising campaign on holiday travel and COVID-19 infections: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Nat Med 27(9):1622–1628

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briscese G, Lacetera N, Macis M, Tonin M (forthcoming) The drivers of compliance with confinement measures at the time of Covid-19. In: Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics

    Google Scholar 

  • Burki T (2020) The online anti-vaccine movement in the age of COVID-19. Lancet Digit Health 2(10):e504–e505

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bursztyn L, Egorov G, Enikolopov R, Petrova M (2019) Social media and xenophobia: evidence from Russia. National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bursztyn L, Rao A, Roth CP, Yanagizawa-Drott DH (2020) Misinformation during a pandemic (No. w27417). National Bureau of Economic Research

    Google Scholar 

  • Charoenwong B, Kwan A, Pursiainen V (2020) Social connections with COVID-19–affected areas increase compliance with mobility restrictions. Sci Adv 6(47):eabc3054

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dagan N, Barda N, Kepten E, Miron O, Perchik S, Katz MA, Hernán MA, Lipsitch M, Reis B, Balicer RD (2021) BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine in a nationwide mass vaccination setting. N Engl J Med 384(15):1412–1423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daverio-Occhini FN, Montoya-Aguirre M, Woo-Mora LG (2021) Moral force: leaders’ actions and social distancing. Available at SSRN 3678980

    Google Scholar 

  • DellaVigna S, Kaplan E (2007) The Fox News effect: media bias and voting. Q J Econ 122(3):1187–1234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deng H, Hwang Y (2021) Structural analysis of xenophobia. Available at SSRN 3958536

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhaliwal D, Mannion C (2020) Antivaccine messages on facebook: preliminary audit. JMIR Public Health Surveill 6(4):e18878

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diekema DS (2012) Improving childhood vaccination rates. N Engl J Med 366(5):391–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enikolopov R, Petrova M, Zhuravskaya E (2011) Media and political persuasion: evidence from Russia. Am Econ Rev 101(7):3253–3285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enikolopov R, Petrova M, Sonin K (2018) Social media and corruption. Am Econ J Appl Econ 10(1):150–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enikolopov R, Makarin A, Petrova M (2020) Social media and protest participation: evidence from Russia. Econometrica 88(4):1479–1514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairley K, Jones MEC, Rose D (2021) A vaccination scar: the cutter incident and medical mistrust in America, mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Fetzer T, Witte M, Hensel L, Jachimowicz JM, Haushofer J, Ivchenko A, Caria S, Reutskaja E, Roth C, Fiorin S (2020) Global behaviors and perceptions in the COVID-19 pandemic (No. w27082). National Bureau of Economic Research

    Google Scholar 

  • Galletta S, Ash E (2019) How cable news reshaped local government. Available at SSRN 3370908

    Google Scholar 

  • Garz M, Zhuang M (2021) Media coverage and pandemic behaviour: evidence from Sweden, mimeo

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta I (2020) Risk and prevention of infectious disease. In: Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics. pp 1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Guriev S, Henry E, Zhuravskaya E (2020) Checking and sharing alt-facts. Available at SSRN 3597191

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart PS, Chinn S, Soroka S (2020) Politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news coverage. Sci Commun 42(5):679–697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holtz D, Zhao M, Benzell SG, Cao CY, Rahimian MA, Yang J, Allen J, Collis A, Moehring A, Sowrirajan T et al (2020) Interdependence and the cost of uncoordinated responses to COVID-19. Proc Natl Acad Sci 117(33):19837–19843

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsiang S, Allen D, Annan-Phan S, Bell K, Bolliger I, Chong T, Druckenmiller H, Huang LY, Hultgren A, Krasovich E et al (2020) The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature 584(7820):262–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim E, Shepherd ME, Clinton JD (2020) The effect of big-city news on rural America during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proc Natl Acad Sci 117(36):22009–22014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kissler S, Tedijanto C, Lipsitch M, Grad Y (2020) Social distancing strategies for curbing the COVID-19 epidemic. Available at MedRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.22.20041079

  • Kuchler T, Russel D, Stroebel J (2022) JUE insight: the geographic spread of COVID-19 correlates with the structure of social networks as measured by Facebook. J Urban Econ 103314

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewnard JA, Lo NC (2020) Scientific and ethical basis for social-distancing interventions against COVID-19. Lancet Infect Dis 20(6):631–633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loomba S, de Figueiredo A, Piatek SJ, de Graaf K, Larson HJ (2021) Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA. Nat Hum Behav 5(3):337–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu CT, Xie S, Kong X, Yu PS (2014) Inferring the impacts of social media on crowdfunding. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM international conference on Web search and data mining, pp 573–582

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariani LA, Gagete-Miranda J, Retti P (2020) Words can hurt: how political communication can change the pace of an epidemic. Covid Econ 12:104–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin GJ, Yurukoglu A (2017) Bias in cable news: persuasion and polarization. Am Econ Rev 107(9):2565–2599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellado C, Hallin D, Cárcamo L, Alfaro R, Jackson D, Humanes ML, Mireya Márquez-Ramírez JM, Mothes C, Christi I-Hsuan LIN et al (2021) Sourcing pandemic news: a cross-national computational analysis of mainstream media coverage of Covid-19 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Digit J 9(9):1261–1285

    Google Scholar 

  • Milani F (2021) COVID-19 outbreak, social response, and early economic effects: a global VAR analysis of cross-country interdependencies. J Popul Econ 34(1):223–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milosh M, Painter M, Sonin K, Van Dijcke D, Wright AL (2021) Unmasking partisanship: polarization undermines public response to collective risk. J Public Econ 204:104538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller K, Schwarz C (2021) Fanning the flames of hate: social media and hate crime. J Eur Econ Assoc 19(4):2131–2167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy J, Valli’eres F, Bentall RP, Shevlin M, McBride O, Hartman TK, McKay R, Bennett K, Mason L, Gibson-Miller J et al (2021) Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Nat Commun 12(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myrick JG, Nabi RL, Eng NJ (2021) Consuming memes during the COVID pandemic: effects of memes and meme type on COVID-related stress and coping efficacy. Psychol Pop Media 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicodemo C (forthcoming) Migration and health during Covid period. In: Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierri F, Perry B, DeVerna MR, Yang K-C, Flammini A, Menczer F, Bryden J (2021) The impact of online misinformation on US COVID-19 vaccinations. arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.10635

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinna M, Picard L, Goessmann C (2021) Cable news and COVID-19 vaccine compliance. Available at SSRN 3890340

    Google Scholar 

  • Polack FP, Thomas SJ, Kitchin N, Absalon J, Gurtman A, Lockhart S, Perez JL, Marc GP, Moreira ED, Zerbini C et al (2020) Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine. N Engl J Med 383(27):2603–2615

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porcher S, Renault T (2021) Social distancing beliefs and human mobility: evidence from Twitter. PLoS One 16(3):e0246949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prather KA, Wang CC, Schooley RT (2020) Reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Science 368(6498):1422–1424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prior M (2007) Post-broadcast democracy: how media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Quan-Haase A, Mendes K, Ho D, Lake O, Nau C, Pieber D (2021) Mapping #MeToo: a synthesis review of digital feminist research across social media platforms. New Media Soc 23(6):1700–1720. 1461444820984457

    Google Scholar 

  • Roozenbeek J, Schneider CR, Dryhurst S, Kerr J, Freeman ALJ, Recchia G, Van Der Bles AM, Van Der Linden S (2020) Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world. R Soc Open Sci 7(10):201199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sacerdote B, Sehgal R, Cook M (2020) Why is all COVID-19 news bad news? National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Simonov A, Sacher SK, Dubé J-PH, Biswas S (2020) The persuasive effect of Fox News: non-compliance with social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. National Bureau of Economic Research

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Théro H, Vincent EM (2022) Investigating Facebook’s interventions against accounts that repeatedly share misinformation. Inf Process Manag 59(2):102804

    Google Scholar 

  • Tian Y, Caballero ME, Kovak BK (2022) Social learning along international migrant networks. J Econ Behav Organ 195:103–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Valsecchi M, Durante R (2021) Internal migration networks and mortality in home communities: evidence from Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Eur Econ Rev 140:103890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Velde FR (2022) What happened to the US economy during the 1918 influenza pandemic? A view through high-frequency data. J Econ History 82(1):284–326. Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson K (2020) Coronavirus: how pandemic turned political in Brazil. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53021248. Accessed 23 Oct 2020

  • Wright AL, Sonin K, Driscoll J, Wilson J (2020) Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols. J Econ Behav Organ 180:544–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wulfsohn JA (2020) Fox News reaches highest viewership in networkâs history, topping MSNBC, CNN in 2020. Fox News, February, 25

    Google Scholar 

  • Yanagizawa-Drott D (2014) Propaganda and conflict: evidence from the Rwandan genocide. Q J Econ 129(4):1947–1994

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhuravskaya E, Petrova M, Enikolopov R (2020) Political effects of the internet and social media. Ann Rev Econ 12:415–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Responsible Section Editor: Klaus F. Zimmermann.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Maxim Ananyev

  2. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Michael Poyker & Yuan Tian

Authors
  1. Maxim Ananyev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Poyker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuan Tian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maxim Ananyev .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Labour Market and Social Policies, National Institute for Public Policies Analysis (INAPP), Rome, Italy

    Sergio Scicchitano Ph.D

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Ananyev, M., Poyker, M., Tian, Y. (2022). Covid-19 and the Media. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_329-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_329-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation