Psychology Research and Behavior Management (May 2021)
Which Information Frame is Best for Reporting News on the COVID-19 Pandemic? An Online Questionnaire Study in China
Abstract
Yi Kuang,1,2 Ming-Xing Xu,1,3 Shu-Wen Yang,1,2 Yang Ding,1,2 Rui Zheng,1,2 John Taplin,4 Shu Li1,5 1CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioural Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, 350118, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia; 5Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Shu LiCAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-10-64841536Fax +86-10-64841536Email [email protected]: The COVID-19 pandemic has received broad public attention and has been subject to social media discussion since the beginning of 2020. Previous research has demonstrated that framing could influence perception and behaviors of audience members in the mass media. The question addressed in this paper concerns which information frame is best for reporting negative news (eg, deaths) and positive news (eg, recoveries or cures) related to the outbreak of COVID-19.Methods: During the Spring Festival holidays of 2020 in China, we investigated a sample of 8170 participants’ risk perceptions and emotional responses to the pandemic, and their willingness to forward updates when the information is presented in different frames by using a 2 (domain: living [good news] vs dying [bad news]) × 2 (count: absolute vs relative) × 2 (population base: excluding population base vs including population base) × 2 (content: text-only vs text-plus-graphic) mixed factorial design, with the first factor being a within-subjects factor and the last three being between-subjects factors.Results: Results indicated that (1) participants were more willing to forward good news (eg, cures) than bad news (eg, deaths); (2) when reporting bad news, the inclusion of the “population base” was effective in minimizing negative emotions; (3) when reporting good news, excluding the “population base” was more effective than including it in order to maximize positive emotions; (4) a text-plus-graphic frame worked better than a text-only frame in lowering the level of risk perception and negative emotions.Discussion: This study is relevant to how individuals and organizations communicate information about this viral pandemic and the probable impact of this news on the general public.Keywords: COVID-19, information frame, perception, emotion
