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Risk Communication in the Alert Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of News Flow at National and Global Levels

Author

Listed:
  • Hua Guo

    (Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China)

  • Jiandong Zhang

    (Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China)

  • Shihui Feng

    (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Boyin Chen

    (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Minhong Wang

    (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    Department of Educational Information Technology, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China)

Abstract

This study examined the global media citation network of COVID-19-related news at two stages of the pandemic alert phase, i.e., the national level alert stage and the global level alert stage. The findings reveal that the small-world pattern and scale-free property of media citation networks contributed to the rapid spread of COVID-19-related news around the world. Within the networks, a small number of media outlets from a few countries formed the backbone of the network to control the risk communication; meanwhile, many media of geographical and cultural similarities formed cross-border collaborative cliques in the periphery of the network. When the alert phase escalated from the national level to the global level, the network demonstrated a number of changes. The findings contribute to the understanding of risk communication for international public health emergencies by taking into account the network perspective and evolutionary nature of public health emergencies in analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Hua Guo & Jiandong Zhang & Shihui Feng & Boyin Chen & Minhong Wang, 2022. "Risk Communication in the Alert Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of News Flow at National and Global Levels," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9588-:d:880108
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    References listed on IDEAS

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