Pandemic Nationalism: Use of Government Social Media for Political Information and Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories in China

IF 4.1 1区社会学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

International Journal of Press-Politics Pub Date : 2023-02-06 DOI:10.1177/19401612231153107

Anfan Chen, Yingdan Lu, Kaiping Chen, Aaron Yikai Ng

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories across different social media platforms. Parallel to this conspiracy wave was a heightened sense of nationalism, which manifested through both in-group solidarity and perceived out-group threats. In this study, we examine how individuals’ use of government social media to gather political information correlated with nation-related conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. Data were collected from 745 subjects in China and analyzed through path analyses, which allowed us to examine the direct association with political information consumption from government social media and the indirect association with nationalism on conspiracy beliefs. The results indicated that the use of government social media to gather political information was associated with greater beliefs in nation-variant COVID-19 conspiracies, both directly and through different mediations of nationalism. Our findings highlight the importance of examining government social media use and how nationalism can have differentiated mediation effects on beliefs in conspiracy theories.

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大流行病民族主义：利用政府社交媒体获取政治信息和相信新冠肺炎阴谋论

COVID-19大流行在不同的社交媒体平台上引发了大量的阴谋论。与这种阴谋浪潮并行的是民族主义意识的增强，表现为群体内的团结和群体外的威胁。在这项研究中，我们研究了在大流行期间，个人如何使用政府社交媒体收集与国家相关的阴谋信念相关的政治信息。我们收集了中国745名受试者的数据，并通过路径分析进行了分析，这使我们能够研究与政府社交媒体政治信息消费的直接关联以及与民族主义对阴谋信仰的间接关联。结果表明，使用政府社交媒体收集政治信息与对国家变异COVID-19阴谋的更大信念有关，无论是直接的还是通过不同的民族主义调解。我们的研究结果强调了检查政府社交媒体使用的重要性，以及民族主义如何对阴谋论信仰产生不同的调解作用。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Press-Politics Multiple-

CiteScore

12.10

自引率

8.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Press/Politics is an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the press and politics in a globalized world. The Journal is interested in theoretical and empirical research on the linkages between the news media and political processes and actors. Special attention is given to the following subjects: the press and political institutions (e.g. the state, government, political parties, social movements, unions, interest groups, business), the politics of media coverage of social and cultural issues (e.g. race, language, health, environment, gender, nationhood, migration, labor), the dynamics and effects of political communication.