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

本项目采用多种方法研究民粹主义政治家如何扭曲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对抗这些民粹主义叙事，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。该项目将民粹主义传播和公共卫生两个专业领域结合在一起，对民粹主义传播和政治两极分化的研究做出了重要贡献。这项研究将为旨在建立更具弹性的媒体组织的建议提供信息，这些组织能够更好地抵御未来分裂社会中流行病的挑战。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，从而提高生活水平。本项目将首次对民粹主义政治背景下的健康危机传播进行全面的比较研究，并探讨民粹主义对COVID-19期间大流行传播回路的四个方面的影响：政府主导的健康危机传播、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应对这些民粹主义叙事，并发展更有效、更可靠的沟通。重点关注巴西、波兰、塞尔维亚和美国这四个国家，它们在大流行期间都由民粹主义领导人领导，并捕捉到了不同类型的民粹主义应对措施。该项目还以跨国视角分析了民粹主义与流行病传播之间的互动是如何受到中俄流行病地缘政治的影响的。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，从而提高生活水平。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

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.