“Ninety one percent of stories by U.S. major media outlets are negative in tone versus fifty four percent for non-U.S. major sources and sixty five perfecent for scientific journals,” reads the working paper’s abstract. “The negativity of the U.S. major media is notable even in areas with positive scientific developments including school re-openings and vaccine trials. Media negativity is unresponsive to changing trends in new COVID-19 cases or the political leanings of the audience.”
The paper, published last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research and written by Dartmouth College scholars Bruce Sacerdote and Ranjan Sehgal along with Brown University’s Molly Cook, analyzed over 20,000 news reports from the 15 top U.S. media outlets and 39 international sources. Overall, they conclude that “U.S. major media outlets are much more negative” when publishing similar stories to “non-U.S. sources.”
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As an example of the negativity bias in U.S. major media reporting, researchers point to a Feb. 18 Oxford Mail story about the rapid vaccine development taking place at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute by Professor Sarah Gilbert.
“In contrast to Oxford Mail’s reporting, the U.S. major media outlets of Fox News, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post did not begin coverage of Professor Gilbert’s COVID-19 related work until late April,” the authors note. “The U.S. based stories emphasized caveats from health officials and experts downplaying the optimistic timeline and past success of the Oxford researchers.”
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The researchers pointed out that the first major U.S. media outlet to pick up the story was CNN on April 23, but the outlet began the story with quotes from England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warning that the probability of having a successful vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 “anytime in the next calendar year” is “incredibly small.”
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“There is a similar disconnect between U.S. major media reporting on school reopenings and scientific findings on the same topic; the reporting is overwhelmingly negative, while the scientific literature tells a more optimistic story,” the researchers noted.
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The paper cites a study on school reopenings and COVID-19 infections that found “infection rates among students remain low” and that “schools have not become the super-spreaders many feared.” The researchers note that an analysis of the available evidence painted a similar story, yet 90% of “school reopening articles from U.S. mainstream media are negative versus only 56 percent” of foreign media coverage.
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“The tone of media coverage impacts both human health and attitudes towards preventative measures including vaccination, mask wearing, and social distance,” the authors wrote. “The proportion of U.S. adults who exhibit depression symptoms has risen threefold since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
The authors note that even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a recommendation against “heavy consumption of news stories about the pandemic.”
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