[论文解读] Pandemic News: Facebook Pages of Mainstream News Media and the Coronavirus Crisis -- A Computational Content Analysis

Thorsten Quandt, Svenja Boberg+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|May 27, 2020

Misinformation and Its Impacts参考文献 55被引用 26

一句话总结

本研究对德国主流新闻媒体在新冠疫情初期（2020年1月至3月）的Facebook页面进行了计算内容分析，采用主题建模、共现分析和情感检测，考察报道广度、涉事主体参与度、负面情绪以及对虚假信息的处理。研究发现，尽管初期报道范围较窄且媒体对政治精英表现出一定尊重，但主流媒体仍提供了多重视角、具有上下文准确性的报道，有效驳斥了虚假新闻，仅获得有限的实证支持来证明其存在不加批判或浅显的危机报道。

ABSTRACT

The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for news media around the globe. While journalism is meant to process yet unknown events by design, the dynamically evolving situation affected all aspects of life in such profound ways that even the routines of crisis reporting seemed to be insufficient. Critics noted tendencies to horse-race reporting and uncritical coverage, with journalism being too close to official statements and too affirmative of political decisions. However, empirical data on the performance of journalistic news media during the crisis has been lacking thus far. The current study analyzes the Facebook messages of journalistic news media during the early Coronavirus crisis, based on a large German data set from January to March 2020. Using computational content analysis methods, reach and interactions, topical structure, relevant actors, negativity of messages, as well as the coverage of fabricated news and conspiracy theories were examined. The topical structure of the near-time Facebook coverage changed during various stages of the crisis, with just partial support for the claims of critics. The initial stages were somewhat lacking in topical breadth, but later stages offered a broad range of coverage on Corona-related issues and societal concerns. Further, journalistic media covered fake news and conspiracy theories during the crisis, but they consistently contextualized them as what they were and debunked the false claims circulating in public. While some criticism regarding the performance of journalism during the crisis received mild empirical support, the analysis did not find overwhelming signs of systemic dysfunctionalities. Overall, journalistic media did not default to a uniform reaction nor to sprawling, information-poor pandemic news, but they responded with a multi-perspective coverage of the crisis.

研究动机与目标

• 考察德国主流新闻媒体如何通过其Facebook页面报道新冠疫情初期阶段。
• 评估疫情相关新闻内容在主题广度、涉事主体参与度、负面情绪以及对虚假信息处理方面的表现。
• 评估媒体报道是否表现出系统性缺陷，例如“竞选式报道”、过度依赖政治精英或不加批判地认同官方叙事。
• 对比主流媒体与另类新闻媒体在语气、事实准确性以及对阴谋论处理方面的表现。
• 提供主流新闻业在全球危机期间实际行为的实证证据，以反驳基于轶事或意识形态的批评。

提出的方法

• 对2020年1月至3月期间德国28家主流新闻媒体的Facebook帖子大规模数据集进行计算内容分析。
• 使用主题建模（LDA）识别并追踪危机各阶段主题覆盖的变化。
• 开展共现分析，绘制政治精英、专家及其他主体在新闻内容中的突出程度。
• 执行情感分析，测量新闻内容的负面程度，并与非疫情时期的报道进行比较。
• 追踪特定阴谋论和虚假新闻的提及情况，评估其是否被报道以及如何被呈现（例如被驳斥或被放大）。
• 将研究发现与另类新闻媒体的平行数据进行对比，以定位主流媒体的表现。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 德国主流新闻媒体的Facebook报道主题结构在新冠疫情初期阶段如何演变？
• RQ2 主流新闻媒体在多大程度上聚焦于政治精英？其报道的主体多样性如何？
• RQ3 与常规内容相比，疫情期间主流媒体的报道语气是否更加负面？与另类媒体相比有何差异？
• RQ4 主流媒体在危机期间如何处理虚假信息，包括阴谋论和伪造新闻？
• RQ5 主流媒体在多大程度上表现出‘竞选式报道’或对官方叙事不加批判地认同的特征？

主要发现

• 随着危机推进，Facebook报道的主题结构从初期的狭窄聚焦演变为更广泛、多重视角的报道，涵盖社会、健康与政治议题。
• 政治精英是新闻内容中的核心主体，但科学家、医护人员及公民社会代表等其他主体也显著出现在报道中。
• 尽管处于危机背景下，主流媒体的报道语气仍比另类媒体更温和，但比其常规内容更具负面情绪，表明其保持了审慎的语气。
• 尽管部分阴谋论被提及，但均被一致界定为虚假信息，且大量帖子明确驳斥了虚假信息。
• 研究仅发现对系统性失灵说法的微弱实证支持，如对政治领导层的过度尊崇或报道浅薄，未发现广泛存在不加批判或恐慌驱动报道的证据。
• 与另类媒体相比，主流媒体表现出更强的事实核查行为，且对虚假主张的传播更少，表明其对虚假信息的处理更为负责。