Pandemic Communication in Time of Populism: Building Resilient Media and Ensuring Effective Pandemic Communication in Divided Societies

该项目使用几种方法来研究民粹主义政客如何扭曲COVID-19大流行卫生传播，以鼓励公民之间的两极分化态度和不信任，从而使他们更容易受到错误信息的影响。它还研究如何最好地反击这些民粹主义叙事，并开发更有效的沟通渠道。该研究研究了四个传播领域：政府主导的流行病传播、媒体政策、媒体报道和公众对媒体的态度。 该项目通过将两个专业领域-民粹主义传播和公共卫生-结合在一起，为民粹主义传播和政治极化的研究做出了重要贡献。这项研究将为旨在建立更具复原力的媒体组织的建议提供信息，这些媒体组织更有能力在分裂的社会中抵御未来大流行病的挑战。 通过帮助提高健康传播的质量，这项研究将有助于改善美国公民的健康状况，从而提高他们的生活水平。 该项目将在民粹主义政治的背景下开展第一个全面的卫生危机传播比较研究，并研究民粹主义对COVID-19期间流行传播回路的四个方面的影响：政府主导的卫生危机传播，媒体政策，媒体报道和公众态度。该项目还将研究如何最好地反击这些民粹主义叙事，并发展更有效和可靠的沟通。重点是四个国家-巴西、波兰、塞尔维亚和美国-在大流行期间都由民粹主义领导人领导，并捕捉了民粹主义对大流行的不同类型的反应。 该项目还从跨国视角分析了中国和俄罗斯的流行病地缘政治如何塑造了民粹主义和流行病传播之间的互动。 通过帮助提高健康传播的质量，这项研究将有助于改善健康，从而提高美国公民的生活水平。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This project uses several methods to study how populist politicians distorted COVID-19 pandemic health communication to encourage polarized attitudes and distrust among citizens, thus making them more vulnerable to misinformation generally. It also studies how best to counter these populist narratives and develop more effective communication channels. The research studies four areas of communication: government led pandemic communication, media policy, media coverage, and public attitudes towards the media. The project makes an important contribution to research on populist communication and political polarization by bringing two fields of expertise–populist communication and public health–together. The research will inform recommendations aimed at building more resilient media organizations that are better equipped to withstand the challenges of future pandemics in divided societies. By helping to improve the quality of health communication, this research will help to improve the health, hence living standards of US citizens. This project will develop the first comprehensive, comparative study of health crisis communication in the context of populist politics and examines the impact of populism on four aspects of the pandemic communication circuit during COVID-19: government-led health crisis communication, media policy, media coverage, and public attitudes. The project will also study how best to counter these populist narratives and develop more efficient and reliable communication. The focus is on four countries---Brazil, Poland, Serbia, and the US---all led by populist leaders during the pandemic and capture different types of populist responses to the pandemic. The project also takes a transnational perspective to analyze how the interaction between populism and pandemic communication was shaped by China and Russia’s pandemic geopolitics. By helping to improve the quality of health communication, this research will help to improve the health, hence living standards of US citizens.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.