Local versus National News about COVID-19 in Spain:Coverage and Public Engagement
Publication date
2023-03-16ISSN
1751-2786
Abstract
In this study, we evaluated the differences between national and local newspapers coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain using a dataset of 421,438 Facebook posts. We assessed the trends in the interest in COVID-19 of local and national newspapers, measured as the proportion of COVID-19 news; and also, the trends in the interest of their readers, measured as the proportion of interactions related to COVID-19. While the overall interest in COVID-19 in local and national newspapers was similar and high, some differences were observed between several of the pandemic phases. National news media interest was higher during the long central phases of the pandemic, but certain news fatigue was observed by the end of 2021. Local news media interest seemed more constant throughout the pandemic. Surprisingly, the overall interest of national and local newspapers was consistently lower than the interest of their readers. Our study also shows homogenous responses among local newspapers during the key phases of the pandemic and heterogeneous responses in the remaining phases. Finally, we found that in the case of local media, their news and interactions were more correlated with the national epidemiological indicators (i.e., cases and deaths) than with the local indicators.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
619 - Veterinary science
Pages
19
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Is part of
Journalism Practice
Citation
Gonçalves, Tatiana Santos, and Sebastián Napp. “Local versus National News about COVID-19 in Spain: Coverage and Public Engagement.” Journalism Practice, March 16, 2023, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2023.2187863
Program
Sanitat Animal
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2838]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/