Naslov
The Impact of Media Coverage of COVID-19 Pandemic on University Students

Autori
Tafra-Vlahović, Majda ; John, Romana ; Buratović Maštrapa, Sandra

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
Communication Management Forum 2026

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 19.03.2021. - 20.03.2021

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Plenarno

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
pandemic ; media coverage ; university students ; impact

Sažetak
Since there has been an increase in media consumption as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and as the high education has mainly moved online, university students and their teachers had to adapt to working in virtual environment and share the adequate quantity of fear, anxiety, reliable information shortage and „infodemic“ with their fellow citizens. Their main concern has, thus, remained the same as for all others – who to believe? That is the context and the framework of this paper. During the whole year of pandemic where media have been both polarized and clearly politically biased, riots of citizens in defense of human rights became everyday reality and the social media remain main source of information for generations who continue their education in extremely unexpected circumstances of „new normal“, it is only natural that educators want to understand what is happening to students. How is media coverage as the main source of their information affecting them, their ability to study, to be young and have hopes for the future? So, we asked them. The research question “How is media coverage of pandemic affecting students?” was hardly elaborated out for pure scientific reasons, but rather born out of the need to try to make sense of the reality in which we operate on a daily basis. It is, therefore, an action research which evolves and hardly has a clear and satisfactory closure. It also inspires new questions in an action research spiral of attempts to interpret and understand the dynamic social environment we teach and live in. The necessary desk research within this paper has also been a never ending job as the amount of articles on the subject of media impact in pandemic has been growing enormously on a daily basis. In a survey for students we used a questionnaire with multiple choice and open ended questions. The sample was convenient, so we have French and Croatian students, many of them having virtual education experience sitting in the middle of pandemic in various places from India to New Zealand, from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and Varaždin. It was also convenient in time as it provided us with a few screenshots of attitudes and perceptions in various times from May 2020 till January 2021. The results, although the students also do display concern, fear and worry for the future as do most other citizens, nevertheless illustrate a certain resilience on the part of the students when it comes to critically absorbing the media content, the resilience that seem to be growing as the pandemic persists. That we find encouraging and hope to motivate for more structured monitoring and further research in this direction.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Informacijske i komunikacijske znanosti

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