The value of public service broadcasting in Japan during COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of WTP by Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition.

The first case of COVID-19 in Japan was detected in January 2020, and the first outbreak occurred between March and May of that year. In this study, changes in the willingness to pay (WTP) for public service media (PSM) were analyzed using data from public opinion polls conducted before and after the period of the first outbreak. A comparison of the samples obtained via Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition revealed the importance of and satisfaction with the news that viewers felt, and their viewing frequency increased after the pandemic, as did WTP. The findings can be interpreted as an increase in the demand for news as the infection spread. The analysis also showed that the WTP for PSM decreased a little owing to the reduction in sports programs. The results demonstrate the importance of PSM in moments of crisis, such as pandemics.

Analysis of Newspaper Reporting of Non-fatal Suicide Attempts During the Covid-19 Lockdown in Pakistan.

Background: This study was aimed to observe newspaper reports about non-fatal suicide attempts in Pakistan during the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: We performed content analysis of news reports about incomplete suicides from four vernacular newspapers of Pakistan between March and August 2020. Results: A total of 87 news reports about suicide attempts were examined; the vast majority of the suicide attempters was Muslims (78%), males (64%), females (36%) with (33%) mentions of age, ranging from 19-30 years, and married were (76%). However, occupation was largely missing from (93%) of the news. Self-poisoning was the commonly reported method in (65%) of suicide attempts, whereas familial discord was the leading risk factor for (72%) of suicide attempts. Conclusions: Although psychological intervention is crucial to reduce familial discords as risk factors, monitoring the mental health conditions of people vulnerable to suicide and the figures on attempted suicides should be maintained and collected nationally and regionally.

Comparative Study of Chinese and American Media Reports on the COVID-19 and Expressions of Social Responsibility: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

Critical discourse analysis aims to explore the dialectical relationship between discourse and ideology. Based on psycholinguistic research, this paper analyzes the Chinese and American media's news reports and comments on the COVID-19. It aims to expose the hidden psychological messages and ideologies behind the words. The corpus in this paper is mainly from the official media of China Daily and Time from December 2019 to January 2021 in China and the United States. This paper uses Wang Zhenhua's Appraisal Theory and Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar as tools to make a comparative analysis of the corpus. At the textual level, languages are classified and lexical choices are analyzed followed by the analysis of the reporter's ideology after reviewing the motivation of the reporters of two countries. On the level of social responsibility expression and discourse, the paper analyzes the news reports, which are characterized by the combination of the reporter's views on the news. In the aspect of social practice, the social and cultural factors and background of news reports are analyzed. China calls for strengthening cooperation and exchanges with other countries to jointly fight the epidemic. The Chinese government has actively shared its experience and made corresponding contributions to international economic recovery. However, the US government shirks its responsibility by claiming that the effective implementation of Chinese methods and experience in China does not mean that it can achieve corresponding results in Europe and the US. At the same time, the United States provides medical supplies to other countries. This study hopes to help awaken readers' critical thinking and increase their awareness of the anti-control of mass discourse. At the same time, it is hoped that readers can view the epidemic from a more scientific perspective, understand the facts and reject the unwarranted panic. It will also help reshape Chinese and American discourse.

A profile analysis of problematic smartphone usage among college students during coronavirus disease 2019: Relations with the impact of news reports.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was the first pandemic to occur in a fully globalized society. The aims of the study were to explore the state of problematic smartphone use (PSU) and its risk factors during this incident. A total of 77,211 college students were surveyed online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conducting latent profile analysis (LPA), we found the most support for a three-class model of subgroups: over-use group (17.3% of the sample), moderate-use group (54.8% of the sample), mild-use group (27.9% of the sample). The results of multinomial logistic regression show that college students who experienced an extreme negative impact from news reports were more likely to be included in the over-use group than in the mild-use group. These results providing insights that may help foster and develop appropriate and effective solutions to prevent PSU among college students during crises, such as reducing the coverage of negative news report. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03896-0.

Does evaluating belief prior to its retraction influence the efficacy of later corrections?

News stories unfold over time, with initial reports sometimes containing mistaken accounts of the newsworthy outcome that are ultimately revised or corrected. Because facts associated with newsworthy events are accumulated in this piecemeal fashion, readers often have repeated opportunities to reflect upon, discuss, and evaluate their belief in these accounts before they learn that initial news reports have been revised or retracted. The primary goal of the present study was to assess whether rating the strength of one's belief in the initially reported, mistaken cause might influence the efficacy of a later correction. In the current study, participants evaluated their belief in the target cause by either rating how much they believed it caused the outcome (Experiment 1) or rating the probability that the target caused the outcome (Experiment 2). The results showed that evaluating belief in a target cause prior to its retraction (relative to not doing so) rendered the correction more effective. This enhanced correction effect was not observed when participants generated the target information prior to its retraction (Experiment 3). Collectively, the results suggest that it is not how much people believe something, but whether they have thought about why they do or do not believe it, that affects their later willingness to revise their mistaken beliefs.

The impact of 24/7 news coverage on the mental health of Israelis in the 'Iron Swords' War: A cross-sectional analysis among television audience.

This study aims to assess the impact of continuous 24/7 news broadcasting on the mental well-being of Jewish Israelis during the 'Iron Swords' War and compare it to findings from the 2014 Conflict. An internet-based cross-sectional panel survey was conducted on 11-12 October 2023, during the 'Iron Swords' War. The study focused on Israel's adult Jewish population, enabling comparisons with a previous 2014 study. Participants reported news consumption changes, attitudes towards newscasts (burdensome, relaxing, stressful, addictive, Fear Of Missing Out [FOMO], avoidance), opinions on 24/7 news, and anxiety symptoms. Among 802 adult Jewish participants in Israel, 83.8% increased news consumption. While more than 70% of respondents found the newscast stressing at least a medium level, more than 40% said they do not try to avoid them at all. Nearly 24% found it much addictive. Women and younger individuals reported more FOMO, stress, and addiction. More than 70% reported experiencing at least one anxiety symptom, and 21% of all four. Linear regression explained 42.9% of the variance of reported anxiety, with gender, age, news stress, addiction, and FOMO as predictors. The current study results show an increase in all measurements compared to a separate study conducted using the same tools in 2014. Jewish Israelis struggled with news consumption during the recent war, harming mental health. Heightened anxiety was observed, compared to 2014, and affected all demographics.

Mapping a Country Image from Global News Reports about COVID-19 Pandemic.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected hundreds of millions of people worldwide and caused millions of deaths. This study used media analysis and correlation analysis to elucidate the significant differences in the ways in which news reports from 228 countries discussed a specific country when covering the COVID-19 pandemic. Media reports analysed in this study were collected from the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone project (GDELT). These differences were found to be deeply embedded in the economic, socio-political, and cultural contexts of different countries. The findings reinforced the hypothetical assumption in framing theory and promoted a measurable and upscaled use of framing theory into macro geography studies. This study highlights the urgent need of a geo-political examination of COVID-19 in the global context-an area with insufficient interest from interdisciplinary perspective beyond epidemiology. Further research can be of great value for the promotion of an effective international cooperation mechanism to curb the spread of COVID-19. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12061-022-09498-4.

Corpus-based critical discourse analysis of reporting practices in English news reports on public health event in China and United States.

Introduction: Reporting speech is a basic form of human language, and reporting practices play a key role in news report. As one of the important rhetorical devices to introduce the reported speech, reporting verbs can help the readers understand the source of the reported speech and the attitude of the journalist or the media toward the reported information. Method: This study examines the features of reporting practice in Chinese and American news reports on public health emergency by investigating the use of reporting verbs from the perspectives of critical discourse analysis. Two English news corpora of COVID-19 pandemic are built, namely, the China Daily News Corpus and the New York Times News Corpus, with 50 news texts in each corpus. The corpus analysis tool AntConc 3.3.5 is used to conduct concordance analysis. Results and discussion: It is found that Chinese and American news reports tend to use roughly the same high-frequency reporting verbs in reporting the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese and American news corpora show difference in the distribution feature of high-frequency reporting verbs in terms of semantic category. Both Chinese and American news reports use speech reporting verbs most frequently, indicating an objective attitude toward the reported event, and use speech reporting verbs and speech act reporting verbs to introduce the reported speech with comparatively higher degree of certainty. American news reports frequently use mental reporting verbs to show the attitude of uncertainty toward the reported speech, and Chinese news reports probably need to raise the awareness of using mental reporting verbs to express the opinions and attitude of the common people or the authority. The findings of this study can provide insights into the research on reporting strategies of news reports on emergencies in China for foreign audience.

Agricultural youth injuries: An updated review of cases from U.S. news media reports, 2016-2021.

Introduction: Fatal and non-fatal youth (ages 0-17) injuries in U.S. agriculture continue to be a significant public health concern. Despite sustained work and attention from federally supported research programming, we continue to observe an unacceptably high number of life-altering and life-ending traumatic injuries to youth in agricultural environments. Likewise, there is still a gap in stringent systematic agricultural injury and/or illness surveillance at the federal level. This paper will provide an updated review of child agricultural injuries from U.S. news media reports, expanding upon this author team's initial 2018 report. Methods: Data collection from 2016 to 2021 occurred as part of the AgInjuryNews initiative, and data were coded according to the Farm and Agricultural Injury Classification (FAIC) system and the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS). The AgInjuryNews system primarily contains news media reports. Categorical variables were analyzed and compared using a chi-square test. In addition, the Jonckheere-Terpstra test for trend was used to test the yearly change in the number of youth injuries. Results: We observed a general decrease in agricultural injuries compared to the original 2015-2017 dataset. Younger children (<5 years-old) and males were more often injured and more fatally injured than older children and females, respectively. Males and older victims were more likely to suffer an occupational-related injury compared to females and younger victims, respectively. Vehicles remained a major source of injuries, with tractors comprising 28%, and ATVs/UTVs comprising 26% of all injuries. Roadway incidents involving tractors and UTVs were less often fatal compared to non-roadway incidents, while ATVs were more fatal on roadways. Discussion: This updated review shows childhood agricultural injuries and fatalities continue to be a major public health concern within the US. It is unclear if the trend downward in injuries is due to reporting, data capture methods, or a true decrease in injuries. These data continue to be of interest to stakeholders in academia, public health, government, and private industry-user groups who regularly and consistently seek this type of information, often from multiple data sources, including as registered users on AgInjuryNews.org. These data identify emerging issues within the industry and further inform national and international planning committees' work.

Ideological representation of fear and hope in online newspaper reports on COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

This study examines the ideological representation of fear and hope in online newspaper reports on COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. The study adopts critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Van Dijk's tripartite framework of news text structure and production at microstructure level and Fairclough's insights on the interactivity between language and social cognition in the process of producing and interpreting texts. The data for this study is samples of online news on COVID-19 reported in two English Saudi website;Saudi Gazette and Arab News, six from each journal. The samples cover the period between March 4 and August 14, 2020, and are purposefully chosen to understand the language of the news reports on a specific issue over a period of time. A qualitative analysis of the data is carried out so that the perceived effect of the linguistic encoding of the news events is examined. The findings show that most of the reports on COVID-19 heavily rely on foregrounding evidentiality of statistics of new and cumulative infections as well as recoveries and deaths. Evidentiality strategy often overlaps with categorization strategy as proof of the threat of the virus which is broken down into units, each with its features and evidence. Authority strategy is used to support statistics with verifiable sources. Similarly, in representing hope to the populace, two strategies of evidentiality and authority are often used. Evidentiality strategy is employed to clear off doubts through for grounding statistics of growing recoveries, comparisons and underrepresentation of infection cases and mortalities and sometimes choice of verbs plays a role in imparting hope in the residents. Authority strategy is deployed in order to give some weight to the ideology inherent in the report.

Quality of information in news media reports about the effects of health interventions: Systematic review and meta-analyses.

Background Many studies have assessed the quality of news reports about the effects of health interventions, but there has been no systematic review of such studies or meta-analysis of their results. We aimed to fill this gap (PROSPERO ID: CRD42018095032). Methods We included studies that used at least one explicit, prespecified and generic criterion to assess the quality of news reports in print, broadcast, or online news media, and specified the sampling frame, and the selection criteria and technique. We assessed criteria individually for inclusion in the meta-analyses, excluding ineligible criteria and criteria with inadequately reported results. We mapped and grouped criteria to facilitate evidence synthesis. Where possible, we extracted the proportion of news reports meeting the included criterion. We performed meta-analyses using a random effects model to estimate such proportions for individual criteria and some criteria groups, and to characterise heterogeneity across studies.  Results We included 44 primary studies in the review, and 18 studies and 108 quality criteria in the meta-analyses. Many news reports gave an unbalanced and oversimplified picture of the potential consequences of interventions. A limited number mention or adequately address conflicts of interest (22%; 95% CI 7%-49%) (low certainty), alternative interventions (36%; 95% CI 26%-47%) (moderate certainty), potential harms (40%; 95% CI 23%-61%) (low certainty), or costs (18%; 95% CI 12%-28%) (moderate certainty), or quantify effects (53%; 95% CI 36%-69%) (low certainty) or report absolute effects (17%; 95% CI 4%-49%) (low certainty).  Discussion There is room for improving health news, but it is logically more important to improve the public's ability to critically appraise health information and make judgements for themselves.

Do Dutch News Reports About Suicide Refer to Suicide Prevention Strategies?

Background: Previous research and media guidelines suggest two potential protective characteristics of news reports about suicide: (1) individuals who adopt coping strategies other than suicidal behavior are described and (2) information about resources for support is provided. Aims: Our aim was to investigate the extent to which Dutch news reports contain these two potential protective characteristics. Method: A random selection of Dutch news reports (N = 296) published in the previous 6 months was coded on the presence of each of the two potential protective characteristics. Results: Of the 296 news reports, 50 news reports (16.9%) mentioned available resources for support. Only one news report (0.3%) described an individual who adopted coping strategies other than suicidal behavior in adverse circumstances, namely, entering a mental health care institution. Limitations: One of the limitations is that, owing to the selection of news reports, conclusions pertain only to news reports published by Dutch media sources with the most readership in that period. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that current knowledge about protective characteristics of news reports on suicide needs to be better implemented in The Netherlands.

Panic Buying in Bangladesh: An Exploration of Media Reports.

Background: As an erratic human behavior, panic buying is an understudied research area. Although panic buying has been reported in the past, it has not been studied systematically in Bangladesh. Aim: This study aimed to explore the characteristics of panic buying episodes in Bangladesh in comparison to current concepts. Methods: A retrospective and explorative search were done using the search engine Google on November 6, 2020, with the search term "panic buying in Bangladesh." All the available news reports published in the English language were extracted. A thorough content analysis was done focusing on the study objectives. Results: From the initial search, a total of 30 reports were extracted. However, six reports were not included based upon the exclusion criteria, resulting in an analysis of 24 reports. Five panic buying episodes were identified, discussing the precipitating events, responsible factors, goods acquired through panic buying, and prevention measures. Flood, curfew, COVID-19, and export ban were found to be precipitating events. Media reports frequently mentioned prevention strategies, expert opinion, supply chain status, rationing, and government action. The reported goods that were panic bought were items necessary for daily living such as rice, oil, spices, and safety products such as hand sanitizer and masks. Conclusion: The study revealed preliminary findings on panic buying in Bangladesh; however, they are aligned with the current concept of it. Further empirical studies are warranted to see the geographical variation, precise factors, and to test the culturally appropriate controlling measures.

Opportunities and Challenges for Chinese Elderly Care Industry in Smart Environment Based on Occupants' Needs and Preferences.

New developments in intelligent devices for assisting elderly people can provide elders with friendly, mutual, and personalized interactions. Since the intelligent devices should continually make an important contribution to the smart elderly care industry, smart services or policies for the elders are recently provided by a large number of government programs in China. At present, the smart elderly care industry in China has attracted numerous investors' attention, but the smart elderly care industry in China is still at the beginning stage. Though there are great opportunities in the market, many challenges and limitations still need to be solved. This study analyzes 198 news reports about opportunities and challenges in the smart elderly care industry from six major Chinese portals. The analysis is mainly based on needs assessment for elderly people, service providers, and the Chinese government. It is concluded that smart elderly care services satisfy the elders' mental wants and that needs for improving modernization services are the most frequently mentioned opportunities. Also, the frequently mentioned challenges behind opportunities are intelligent products not being able to solve the just-needed, user-consumption concept and the ability to pay, which is the most frequently mentioned challenge. The results of this study will enable stakeholders in the smart elderly care industry to clarify the opportunities and challenges faced by smart elderly care services in China's development process and provide a theoretical basis for better decision making.

Case report of a child's anxiety disorder precipitated by tremors from a distant earthquake that was extensively covered in local news stories.

Earthquakes are relatively common natural disasters in many parts of the world, but research about the mental health effects of earthquakes remains limited. Individuals experiencing an earthquake often suffer significant loss and are at increased risk for developing mental disorders. However, the prevalence of mental disorders following less dramatic or non-destructive earthquake phenomena is unknown. We report the case of a 10-year-old girl who came to a psychiatric outpatient department with a 2-week history of severe, disabling anxiety symptoms precipitated by non-destructive tremors from a distant earthquake that received extensive coverage in the local press. Her condition did not meet criteria for any of the specific anxiety-related disorders, so the non-specific DSM-5 category 'Other Specified Anxiety Disorder' was considered most appropriate. Her symptoms resolved over 4 weeks when treated with both a benzodiazepine and a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

Newspaper reports from the Coroners Court in Ireland are used to reveal the potential complexity and need for reform in forensic toxicology and medicine services.

Newspapers devote regular space to inquests in the public interest. Accuracy in determining the causes of death is important for public health. Expert opinion features prominently in press reports and is an important channel of public education. How expert are the experts and how complex are apparently simple cases? Toxicology cases involving cannabis and stroke, 'junk food' diet, unexplained sudden death, potential drug interactions, allergy during caesarean section, and ecstacy-type drugs are used to illustrate the complexities. A template for reform is suggested to reform the Coroners Laws in Ireland to recognise the complexity of forensic toxicology and medicine.

The demobilizatoon of two illegal armed groups: analysis of the coverage by nationa ppress / La demovilizacióón de dos grupos armados ilegales: análisis del cubrimiento por la prensa nacional

Given the start of new peace talks between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government, it is crucial to understand the role of Colombian journalists in reporting peace and war. This article presents an analysis on the National Press coverage of the demobilizations of a paramilitary group (Bloque Cacique Nutibara) and a section of the FARC guerrillas (Bloque Cacica Gaitana) within a frame that reflects over the ethical practice of journalism in the context of war. The results are consistent with literature arguing that ethical codes are not documents dictating how journalists should do their job, but rather they represent political acts of communication which allow journalists to reclaim their proffessional independence from sources and defend themselves from threats. The paper also discusses the apparent tension between journalism ethics, and the barriers imposed by the media's informational needs and the strategic military aims of armed groups.

En un momento en el que nuevos diálogos de paz entre la guerrilla de las FARC y el gobierno colombiano se están llevando a cabo es crucial entender el rol que juegan los periodistas cuando informan respecto a la paz y al conflicto armado. Este artículo presenta un análisis del cubrimiento de la prensa nacional a la desmovilización de un grupo paramilitar (Bloque Cacique Nutibara) y de un bloque de la guerrilla de las FARC (Bloque Cacica Gaitana) en el marco de una reflexión sobre el ejercicio de la ética periodística en un contexto de guerra. Los resultados son consistentes con la literatura según la cual los códigos éticos no son documentos cuya función sea dictaminar lo que un periodista debe hacer sino que se trata de acciones de comunicación de carácter político cuyo objetivo es reivindicar la independencia profesional de los periodistas frente a las fuentes y defenderse de las amenazas que reciben. El artículo también discute la aparente tensión que existe entre la ética periodística y las limitaciones impuestas por los medios de comunicación y los objetivos estratégicos de los grupos armados.