Panic buying: An insight from the content analysis of media reports during COVID-19 pandemic

S M Yasir Arafat; Sujita Kumar Kar; Vikas Menon; Charanya Kaliamoorthy; Srijeeta Mukherjee; Angi Alradie-Mohamed; Pawan Sharma; Marthoenis Marthoenis; Russell Kabir

doi:10.1016/j.npbr.2020.07.002

Panic buying: An insight from the content analysis of media reports during COVID-19 pandemic

Neurol Psychiatry Brain Res. 2020 Sep:37:100-103. doi: 10.1016/j.npbr.2020.07.002. Epub 2020 Jul 16.

Authors

S M Yasir Arafat¹, Sujita Kumar Kar², Vikas Menon³, Charanya Kaliamoorthy³, Srijeeta Mukherjee⁴, Angi Alradie-Mohamed⁵, Pawan Sharma⁶, Marthoenis Marthoenis⁷, Russell Kabir⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Enam Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, 1340, Bangladesh.
² Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, 226003, U.P., India.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, 605006, India.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, MKCG Medical College, Brahmapur, Odisha, 760004, India.
⁵ School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine, and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, United Kingdom.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing, UniversitasSyiah Kuala, Banda Aceh 23111, Indonesia.

Abstract

Background: Panic buying is an emerging phenomenon observed during, but not restricted to, pandemic.

Aim: We aimed to evaluate the nature, extent, and impact of panic buying as reported in the media.

Methods: This study was conducted by collecting the information from the English media reports published till 22nd May 2020. A structured format was developed to collect data. Searching was done by using the keyword "panic buying". We have excluded the social media posts discussing the panic buying.

Results: The majority of media reporting was from the USA (40.7 %), and about 46 % of reports highlighted the scarce item. Approximately 82 % of the reports presented the causes of panic buying whereas almost 80 % report covered the impact of it. About 25.7 % of reports highlighted the rumor about panic buying and only 9.3 % of reports blamed the government. Only 27.1 % reports described the remedial measures, 30.8 % reports conferred the news on the psychology behind panic buying and 67.3 % news displayed the images of empty shelves.

Conclusion: A high proportion of reports on panic buying have been found from the developed countries discussing the causes & impact of panic buying on the basis of expert opinion.

Keywords: COVID-19; Content analysis; News report; Pandemic; Panic buying.