Exaggeration and Conspiracy Theories
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Months into the covid-19 global pandemic, everyone has their perception of the novel virus, which has changed various aspects of everyday life (Mitchel et al., 2020). The news sector has been primarily affected, dedicated to providing information on covid-19 from prevention methods to giving statistics on new infections, deaths, and recoveries. With this constant flow of information, some Americans believe that public health organizations have their facts right, while others believe in Trump’s exaggeration and conspiracy theories (Mitchel et al., 2020). How do Americans perceive the Covid-19 pandemic news coverage?
9,654 American adults were surveyed between the fourth to the tenth of June. These adults were all ATP members selected randomly and nationally (Mitchel et al., 2020). The participants represent all U.S demographics by race, gender, education, and others. From the survey, many Democrats, 76%, believe that health organizations and news media are right when it comes to the pandemic. However, only 9% of them agree with Trump.
On the other hand, Republicans tell a different story. Almost half 54% of them agree with Trump and less likely with health organizations and news media. The Republican statistics are noted to increase with the belief that the novel virus news is exaggerated (Mitchel et al., 2020).
The surveys were conducted at intervals, with the results of each survey being compared. The changes in the statistics were noted. Americans highly rated public health organizations information on covid-19 compared to Trump, with Republicans and Democrats holding different views. Americans still follow covid-19 briefings and news, and only a third of them believe in the conspiracy theory.
The research was rightfully conducted based on standard research methods. However, sampling errors are common in ATP surveys, which might affect the statistics.
References
Mitchell, A., Jurkowitz, M., Oliphant, J. B., & Shearer, E. (2020). Three months in, many Americans see exaggeration, conspiracy theories, and partisanship in COVID-19 news. Pew Research Center.