Long Papers
“I Try to Find a Balance”: Investigating Strategies for Self-Regulating Covid News Consumption
Corina Zappia,
Stephann Makri,
Corresponding Author
Corina Zappia
City, University of London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Stephann Makri
City, University of London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorCorina Zappia,
Stephann Makri,
Corresponding Author
Corina Zappia
City, University of London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Stephann Makri
City, University of London, UK
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 14 October 2022
ABSTRACT
Excessive news consumption during global crises (e.g., through regularly monitoring fast-moving developments), can result in information fatigue and anxiety. Indeed, research has highlighted dangerous risks to mental wellbeing from “over-consumption” of Covid-related news. While prior research has examined how people find Covid-related information and sometimes avoid it to prevent overwhelm, no existing studies have investigated how people leverage information seeking, encountering and avoidance (often in concert) to self-regulate their Covid news consumption. We conducted a two-week diary study and follow-up interviews with 16 people. An inductive Thematic Analysis identified several strategies for self-regulating Covid news consumption: short-term avoidance of all Covid news, selective avoidance (e.g., of news on particular Covid topics), selective consumption of Covid news from particular sources, news perceived to be within one's control, or news likely to be of personal benefit and conscious consumption of Covid news by limiting time spent consuming it, relying on passively encountering (rather than actively seeking) it and consuming it less frequently by returning to pre-pandemic news-browsing routines. An understanding of Covid news self-regulation strategies can help digital platforms that provide crisis-related news better support people in regulating their information consumption more effectively which, in turn, can help safeguard their mental wellbeing.
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