Three Hypotheses about the Media Content Amidst the Coronavirus Infection

Abstract

The team of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting (RANEPA) conducted an online survey on social networks Facebook and Instagram in the middle of April 2020. The survey as a part of the regular monitoring research concerning social status and behavior of the population amidst the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) deals with the issues of trust to official information as well as perception of threat of the pandemic for public and individual health, for the country’s economy and personal financial situation. In the context of epidemiological situation, a high demand in news about the disease was accompanied by a decrease of confidence in the information published in the media, i. e. 28 % of respondents commented that they fully or significantly trust official information about the coronavirus, while 69 % admitted that they partially trust it or do not trust at all. Even so according to most respondents the greatest threat of coronavirus spreading was raised by the state economy (85 %) and the public health (47 %). The obtained data helps to maintain several statements: 1) the dependence of the growth of mistrust in official sources and the spread of unconfirmed information (rumors); 2) the impact of the pandemic social context on the nature of official information; 3) the formation of a new language for describing current events and making possible to perceive and interpret the ongoing social changes.Through a review of relevant publications by the other authors, supported by the empirical data based on public opinion polls, the above listed hypotheses are tested and reinforced with new arguments and assumptions. The authors propose a combined, interdisciplinary approach to expand the prospects for analysis for a wide audience and to continue studying the media discourse, understanding the influence of media resources on public opinion and everyday communication in Russia.