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This study examines the third-person effects of COVID-19 news among Wuhan residents during the peak of the outbreaks in the city. Using data collected in a telephone survey of 1,071 Wuhan residents, results show that respondents believed others were more influenced by the COVID-19 news. However, the more the respondents systematically processed the news through elaboration and the more they were oriented toward collectivist values, the smaller the self-other perceptual gap. Finally, results suggest the moderating effect of collectivism on the relationship between perceived effects of COVID news and altruistic behavior—collectivism enhances the influence of perceived effects on others on adoption of altruistic behavior. The influence of culture in shaping risk perception and behavioral responses is discussed.

How did residents in Wuhan, who were at the epicenter of the initial COVID-19 outbreaks in China evaluate the risk to themselves and to society at large, and take action accordingly? This study examines the need for orientation, cognitive reasoning of COVID-19 news, and perceived risk, which all contributed to protective action during the city’s total lockdown. Using data collected in a mobile CATI survey during the peak of the outbreaks in February 2020, findings show that the attention to COVID-19 in digital media predicted the perception of the coronavirus pandemic as a personal risk. In addition, the need for orientation and elaboration of news about the outbreaks were positively associated with perceived risk target–personal and societal. Finally, perceived personal risk proved a stronger predictor than perceived risk to society in general for taking protective behavior. © AMIC/WKWSCI-NTU 2021.

As one of the early COVID-19 epidemic outbreak areas, China attracted the global news media’s attention at the beginning of 2020. During the epidemic period, Chinese people united and actively fought against the epidemic. However, in the eyes of the international public, the situation reported about China is not optimistic. To better understand how the international public portrays China, especially during the epidemic, we present a case study with big data technology. We aim to answer three questions: (1) What has the international media focused on during the COVID-19 epidemic period? (2) What is the media’s tone when they report China? (3) What is the media’s attitude when talking about China? In detail, we crawled more than 280 000 pieces of news from 57 mainstream media agencies in 22 countries and made some interesting observations. For example, international media paid more attention to Chinese livelihood during the COVID-19 epidemic period. In March and April, “progress of Chinese vaccines,” “specific drugs and treatments,” and “virus outbreak in U.S.” became the media’s most common topics. In terms of news attitude, Cuba, Malaysia, and Venezuela had a positive attitude toward China, while France, Canada, and the United Kingdom had a negative attitude. Our study can help understand China’s image in the eyes of the international media and provide a sound basis for image analysis.

Much of the research on media use and environmental participation has examined the persuasive effects of media-motivated cognitive constructs on proenvironmental behavior, whereas the role of media-induced affective constructs has largely been neglected. To address this gap, this study examines how affective constructs (emotional responses and perceived knowledge) arise from media use and in what ways they contribute to environmental participation in the context of haze. Results from a web survey of 1,589 Chinese citizens suggest that traditional media use elicited more positive emotions than the use of new media, while new media use evoked more negative emotions than that of traditional media. Both traditional and new media use were positive predictors of perceived knowledge. Moreover, negative emotion, positive emotion, and perceived knowledge were all positively associated with proenvironmental behavior. The results of mediation analyses indicated that these affective constructs mediated the association between media use and proenvironmental behavior.

This study examines the strategies of political impression management adopted by the Weibo account Liyuan Fan Club from a source credibility perspective, investigating the capacity of each strategy in encouraging online political participation through measuring consumer’s online brand-related activities (i.e. consuming, contributing, and creating). In addition to traditional dimensions of source credibility (i.e. expertise and attractiveness), a new dimension, namely “closeness,” is added in based on previous studies in political branding and celebrity studies. A content analysis of 790 posts is conducted, in which the study finds that emphasis on Peng’s attractiveness and closeness have positive effects on participatory behaviors on social media, while emphasis on Peng’s expertise show no effect. Further analysis indicates that individual contributions of attractiveness and closeness on three levels of participatory behaviors are different, among which attractiveness is more effective in activating low-level participation, while closeness has more positive effect in encouraging high-level participation.