{"id":2934,"date":"2020-02-27T12:35:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T18:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=2934"},"modified":"2020-02-27T12:35:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T18:35:58","slug":"contagion-and-panic-in-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2020\/02\/27\/contagion-and-panic-in-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Contagion and Panic in the Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by photologic, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This post was created in collaboration with the <\/em>Minnesota Journalism Center<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coronavirus — also known as COVID-19 — has taken the global media world by storm. Over 2,000 have died<\/a> and more than 79,000 are infected globally<\/a>. The World Health Organization has been criticized<\/a> for not declaring a public health emergency earlier than they did, but doctors including Dr. Emily Landon<\/a> at the University of Chicago are saying that<\/a> \u201cpeople shouldn\u2019t panic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In cases of public health epidemics, whether people panic depends in part on how journalists cover the issue and which experts they cite. Journalists tend to quote official sources like government officials and public health officials to inform the public about outbreaks of illness including influenza, swine flu, Zika, Ebola, and more recently, coronavirus. Being quoted in news articles gives public health officials the opportunity to share their expertise on said topics to help inform readers about how to protect themselves and avoid infection. From a sociological perspective, focusing on the spread of information about pandemics and infectious diseases provides opportunities for scholars to comment on evolving social structures and processes in a way that will influence the biomedical sciences\u2019 public and policy agenda.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n