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TV news bulletins have used footage from inside hospitals that are treating patients afflicted by coronavirus. Marina Morani, Maria Kyriakidou, Nikki Soo and Stephen Cushion (University of Cardiff) look at the ethical issues raised by these reports, and what the public thinks of them.

When lockdown was eased in England but not in other nations, the devolved administrations were at pains to stress that people living in England could not travel to Wales or Scotland to exercise. In the latest wave of their news diary research, Stephen Cushion, Nikki Soo, Maria Kyriakidou and Marina Morani (Cardiff University) find widespread confusion about the different rules, which is partly attributable to national newspaper coverage.

How much does the British public know about the pandemic? Stephen Cushion, Nikki Soo, Maria Kyriakidou and Marina Morani (Cardiff University) sampled 200 people and found that while there is widespread rejection of the 5G conspiracy theory, many people do not realise the UK death rate is far higher than in other countries.

Plenty of disinformation about the pandemic is circulating. But Maria Kyriakidou, Marina Morani, Nikki Soo and Stephen Cushion (Cardiff University) find that the public are good at spotting and dismissing it. Instead, they criticise confusing journalism and contradictory information from government, with many expressing dismay at the reporting of death rates and PPE shortages.

In Going Viral, Karine Nahon and Jeff Hemsley look to uncover the factors that make tweets, videos, and news stories go viral online. They analyze the characteristics of networks that shape virality, including the crucial role of gatekeepers who control the flow of information and connect networks to one another. This concise and insightful book targets a niche topic in the studies of digital media that is becoming increasingly relevant to the public. It considers many questions and successfully accomplishes what it sets out to do. Students of media, digital worlds, and information studies will not be disappointed, finds Nikki Soo.

One of nine country case studies due to be published as part of the UCL Press ‘Why We Post’ series, Social Media in an English Village offers the findings of an 18-month ethnographic study of the use of social media platforms by residents of an English village. Renowned anthropologist Daniel Miller argues that his subjects utilise a ‘Goldilocks Strategy’ to calibrate their interactions to ensure that they are ‘just right’, indicative of a particularly ‘English’ engagement with social media. While Nikki Soo would have welcomed greater elaboration of Miller’s concept of ‘Englishness’, she recommends this as a thought-provoking and relatable read that will appeal to media scholars and the curious layperson alike.

Governments around the world are increasingly experimenting with initiatives in transparency or ‘open government’, including more user-friendly government websites, greater access to government data, the extension of freedom of information legislation and broader attempts to involve the public in government decision making. This volume aims to analyse the challenges and opportunities presented to journalists as they attempt to hold governments accountable in an era of professed transparency. Nikki Soo finds that this collection enriches arguments for greater transparency within the public sector, as well as within the press ethics.

How are digital landscapes being incorporated into public space and what does this mean for civic engagement? In Digital Dilemmas, M.I. Franklin considers how publics, nation-states, and multilateral institutions are being continually reinvented in local and global decision-making domains that are accessed and controlled by a relative few. This well-researched tome of contemporary digital dilemmas positions itself well among other works that have been published within the discipline, writes Nikki Soo. It is well-suited for experienced media researchers and policy makers with existing knowledge of the field.