(Mis)informed During COVID-19: How Education Level and Information Sources Contribute to Knowledge Gaps

IF 1.9 3区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

International Journal of Communication Pub Date : 2021-04-29 DOI:10.5167/UZH-204498

T. Gerosa, M. Gui, E. Hargittai, M. Nguyen

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引用次数: 37

Abstract

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, disrupting people’s lives through lockdowns and health concerns, information about how to stay safe and how to identify symptoms spread across media of all forms. Using survey data we collected in April 2020 on a national sample of Americans, we tested the knowledge gap hypothesis by examining how people’s education levels relate to their knowledge about COVID-19 as well as their susceptibility to fake news, and whether information sources moderate this relationship. Our findings suggest that a knowledge gap exists, with those with higher education levels displaying higher levels of knowledge. In contrast, education level did not play a role in believing false information. Moreover, higher news consumption through radio, print newspapers and magazines, and especially social media was associated with lower levels of knowledge and more fake news beliefs. However, news media consumption did not moderate the relationship between education and either knowledge or fake news beliefs, meaning that the media did not explain the education-based knowledge gap during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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2019冠状病毒病期间(不正确)知情:教育水平和信息来源如何导致知识差距

随着COVID-19席卷全球，通过封锁和健康问题扰乱了人们的生活，有关如何保持安全以及如何识别症状的信息在各种形式的媒体上传播。我们利用2020年4月在美国全国样本中收集的调查数据，通过研究人们的教育水平与他们对COVID-19的知识之间的关系，以及他们对假新闻的易感性，以及信息来源是否调节了这种关系，来检验知识差距假设。我们的研究结果表明，知识差距是存在的，受教育程度越高，知识水平越高。相比之下，教育程度对相信虚假信息没有作用。此外，通过广播、印刷报纸和杂志，尤其是社交媒体的新闻消费增加，与较低的知识水平和更多的假新闻信念有关。然而，新闻媒体消费并没有调节教育与知识或假新闻信念之间的关系，这意味着媒体不能解释在COVID-19大流行的最初几个月里基于教育的知识差距。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Communication COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Communication is an online, multi-media, academic journal that adheres to the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from anywhere in the world. The International Journal of Communication is an interdisciplinary journal that, while centered in communication, is open and welcoming to contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that meet at the crossroads that is communication study. We are interested in scholarship that crosses disciplinary lines and speaks to readers from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. In other words, the International Journal of Communication will be a forum for scholars when they address the wider audiences of our many sub-fields and specialties, rather than the location for the narrower conversations more appropriately conducted within more specialized journals. USC Annenberg Press USC Annenberg Press is committed to excellence in communication scholarship, journalism, media research, and application. To advance this goal, we edit and publish prominent scholarly publications that are both innovative and influential, and that chart new courses in their respective fields of study. Annenberg Press is among the first to deliver journal content online free of charge, and devoted to the wide dissemination of its content. Annenberg Press continues to offer scholars and readers a forum that meets the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from anywhere in the world.