Journalism and the Coronavirus Pandemic

Thorsten Quandt is Professor of Communication Studies and Dean, Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the University of Münster, Germany. He (co)published more than 200 scientific articles and several books. Quandt is a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA). His research and teaching fields include online communication, media innovation research, digital games and journalism.Karin Wahl-Jorgensen is Professor in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture and serves as University Dean of Research Environment and Culture. Her research focuses on journalism and citizenship, and she has authored or edited ten books. Recent books include Emotions, Media and Politics (2019), Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society (2019, with Arne Hintz and Lina Dencik), and Handbook of Journalism Studies, 2nd edition (2020, Routledge, co-edited with Thomas Hanitzsch).

• Introduction: The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Transformation of (Digital) Journalism 1. Covering Conspiracy: Approaches to Reporting the COVID/5G Conspiracy Theory 2. An Emotional Rally: Exploring Commenters’ Responses to Online News Coverage of the COVID-19 Crisis in Austria 3. Is Sensationalist Disinformation More Effective? Three Facilitating Factors at the National, Individual, and Situational Level 4. Reporting the Covid-19 Pandemic: Trauma on Our Own Doorstep 5. Digital News Readership and Subscription in the United States during COVID-19: A Longitudinal Analysis of Clickstream and Subscription Data from a Local News Site 6. “Crisis Coverage Gap”: The Divide between Public Interest and Local News’ Facebook Posts about COVID-19 in the United States 7. Digital Technologies and the Changing Journalism Cultures in Zimbabwe: Examining the Lived Experiences of Journalists Covering the COVID-19 Pandemic 8. Press Freedom during Covid-19: The Digital Discourses of the International Press Institute, Reporters Sans Frontières, and the Committee to Protect Journalists 9. Women’s Use and Abuse of the News Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mumsnet 10. Refracting the Pandemic: A Field Theory Approach to Chinese Journalists’ Sourcing Options in the Age of COVID-19 11. Change and Continuity in Digital Journalism: The Covid-19 Pandemic as Situational Context for Broader Arguments about the Field