Constructive coverage of pandemic
By Chang Yueh-han 張約翰
With local media providing blanket coverage of the spread of local COVID-19 cases, it has become virtually impossible to avoid news about the outbreak. With the entire nation under a level 3 alert, it is worth asking how media outlets can best assist with this national effort. How much of the news output around COVID-19 is genuinely informative, fact-based reporting?
The term “news avoidance” has in the past few years entered the lexicon of journalism studies to describe people who consume almost no news in their daily lives. Studies show that the number of people who consciously avoid the news is increasing every year, exacerbating the already serious blow to the news and media industry caused by social media and search engines and posing a threat to the healthy functioning of democracies.
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What we liked
Of course we loved the Constructive Institute’s 24-hour rolling conference on the future of journalism. The Upside took part in the opening session on why people avoid news and what can be done about it. You can see our conversation with the estimable Sir Martyn Lewis here.
Upside on the darkside
Speaking of events, we are looking forward to a session called Bridging Our Divides next week, set up by the Progress Network, to examine how to start putting the US back together again. It’s on Monday at 8pm and is free: great for all our readers in the western hemisphere.