Fear-Mongering or Fact-Driven? Illuminating the Interplay of Objective Risk and Emotion-Evoking Form in the Response to Epidemic News. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Klemm, Celine; Hartmann, Tilo; Das, Enny
• Is Part Of: Health communication. Volume 34:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 74
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Communication in medicine -- Periodicals; Health in mass media -- Periodicals; 362.1014
• DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1384429
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-0236

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study examined the veracity of the common assumption that news coverage of epidemic outbreaks spawns heightened fears and risk perceptions. An online experiment with 1, 324 participants investigated the interplay of the form of news coverage (factual/emotion-laden) and key aspects of actual risk (low/high vulnerability, low/high severity) on audience responses. Participants read one of eight versions of a newspaper article followed by measures on risk perceptions, negative affect, behavioral intentions, and perceived sensationalism . Risk perceptions and fear were primarily driven by objective risk characteristics, whereas emotion-laden news form only increased perceptions of disease severity, not of fear or personal vulnerability.