Media Narrative Regarding Restrictions on Social Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gazeta.pl
Media Narrative Regarding Restrictions on Social Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gazeta.pl

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this study was to describe how the gazeta.pl website newsroom conducted the media narrative regarding restrictions on social, professional and private life based on articles about the COVID-19 epidemic published on the website. The study covered the period from the 14th of January 2020 (publication of the first thematic text related to the epidemic) to the 20th of May 2020 (date of lifting of the requirement to wear face masks in outdoor settings). The research material comprised 16,414 news stories published on the gazeta.pl website in which the word coronavirus was used. The texts were classified into 12 thematic groups. Firstly, the research results indicate that the subject of the pandemic follows the principles of the life cycle of a news topic. In addition, a more detailed, five-phase version of the news topic life cycle concept was proposed. Secondly, no positive correlation was identified between the number of new stories on COVID-19 and the number of confirmed cases of the disease. Lastly, the correlation between the number and frequency of news stories on specific topics connected with COVID-19 was limited.

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