The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the complexity of information production and dissemination. Being in the middle of information uncertainty has also meant challenges for expert knowledge. Although the role of professional news media has been significant, audiences got information about the pandemic and its prevention and treatment through numerous other official and unofficial sources. The aim of the paper is to provide new insights into the dynamics of crisis communication and information during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper presents new information and understanding about the perceptions of information providers in a crisis and the ways in which citizens acquire and evaluate crisis information and can thus provide news media with insights on how to build trust among audiences.

The paper is based on the data of two surveys which were implemented in the spring 2022 in Finland. The first Wepropol survey was targeted to the chief editors of Finnish news media. There were 66 respondents on the survey for editors-in-chief (response rate 25%). In addition, an audience survey with 506 respondents was carried out in an internet panel. The aim of the audience survey was to find out the views and attitudes towards Covid-19 pandemic communication among 18-79-year old residents in the Oulu region. Oulu, with its 250,000 inhabitants, is the largest urban centre in northern Finland. It was chosen as the target of the case study since in recent years, several new publications have appeared in the local media ecosystem in Oulu outside the traditional news media. These new publications can reshape the local media landscape and thus affect audiences' reception of information related to Covid-19. Social media platforms, both locally and nationwide, also are an important source for Covid-19 information (e.g. Koljonen & Palonen 2021).

Based on our findings, editors-in-chief and the public evaluate Finnish Covid-19 pandemic news and information rather similarly: the journalistic media  is trusted high and they areseen to have fulfilled their  duties. These findings echo earlier studies which show that the trust in media is among the highest in Finland (Jallinoja & Väliverronen 2021; Uutismedia verkossa 2022). However, editors-in-chief evaluate the print news media’s importance both on a general and the local level greater than the public in the studied  region. Despite the general trust in professional journalism, a large part of the public is, however, worried about fake news.

The audience survey shows that while trusting journalistic media, people also have critical views on Covid-19 news. There are big differences between the respondent groups in how well they see themselves as being informed and how well they perceive the media to have handled their tasks. Respondents aged 25–34 had the most critical attitude towards news media. Among them, for example, trust in journalistic media was lower than in other age groups.

Based on the answers to open-ended questions of the survey, the editors-in-chief see that the relative importance of traditional news media will weaken in the foreseeable future as non-editorial social media, specialised online media and official media become stronger. According to the editors-in-chief, social media and other forms of digital media have the merit of speeding up communication, especially in crisis communication. At the same time, the respondents consider non-traditional digital media as inherently untrustworthy. They believe in a future where the so-called traditional media and digital media will differentiate rather than hybridise, and where it will be even more difficult to distinguish between verified and incorrect information. The editors-in-chief believe that this development will exacerbate political, social and cultural polarisation in society, especially in crisis situations. The responses imply a paradox in the editors-in-chiefs’ views on the futures of journalism: They express a need for a more interactive, audience-centric, and timely journalism, but at the same time disregard the digital means that could help achieve those goals.

References

Grönlund, Mikko, Lehtisaari, Katja, Ruotsalainen, Juho, Hujanen, Jaana & Tuomola, Salla (2022). Koronapandemia, kriisitieto ja media: päätoimittajien ja paikallisen yleisön näkemyksiä koronauutisoinnista ja -viestinnästä. Sarja: SSKH Notat 3/2022. Helsingfors: Svenska social- och kommunalhögskolan vid Helsingfors universitet.

Uutismedia verkossa (2022). Uutismedia verkossa 2022. Reuters-institute Digital News Report. Suomen maaraportti. Tampere ja Helsinki: Tampereen yliopisto ja Media-alan tutkimussäätiö. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2483-4

Jallinoja, Piia & Väliverronen, Esa (2021) Suomalaisten luottamus instituutioihin ja asiantuntijoihin Covid19-pandemiassa. Media & Viestintä 44 (1), 1–24.

Koljonen, J. & Palonen, E. (2021) Performing COVID-19 Control in Finland: Interpretative Topic Modelling and Discourse Theoretical Reading of the Government Communication and Hashtag Landscape. Frontiers in Political Science 3, 110 (12 October 2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2021.689614