News media and health behaviors: What can we learn from COVID-19?

Guanlin Gao () and Danyang Li ()
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Guanlin Gao: Chaminade University of Honolulu
Danyang Li: Hofstra University

Economics Bulletin, 2025, vol. 45, issue 1, 314 - 320

Abstract: Understanding how media influences public health behaviors is crucial, given its essential role in health communication, education, and the promotion of health behaviors. This study investigates how news media choices influence people's knowledge and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. We administered a cross-sectional survey to 662 U.S. residents and collected their news media choices, personal characteristics, and knowledge and preventative measures taken against COVID-19. Our results show that news media choice is strongly correlated with people's knowledge and health behaviors such as social distancing and wearing a mask in public. Although receiving information from both left- and right-leaning media negatively impacts the respondents' performance in the knowledge test, exposure to news media from both sides increases their likelihood of practicing social distancing. Political views, race, and income level also contribute to one's knowledge and health behaviors. Based on our findings, we recommend coordination efforts with news media in health promotion and education.

Keywords: Media choice; public health; health behaviors; political views; social distancing; wearing masks; COVID-19 global pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03-30
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