Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Marjolaine Rivest-Beauregard; Justine Fortin; Connie Guo; Sabrina Cipolletta; Ram P Sapkota; Michelle Lonergan; Alain Brunet

doi:10.2196/33011

Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jun 7;24(6):e33011. doi: 10.2196/33011.

Authors

Marjolaine Rivest-Beauregard^{1

2}, Justine Fortin^{2

3}, Connie Guo², Sabrina Cipolletta⁴, Ram P Sapkota¹, Michelle Lonergan^{2

5}, Alain Brunet^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada.
² Division of Psychosocial Research, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montréal, QC, Canada.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Québec in Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
⁵ School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

PMID: 35537033
PMCID: PMC9177167
DOI: 10.2196/33011

Abstract

Background: Throughout the pandemic, the general population was encouraged to use media to be kept informed about sanitary measures while staying connected with others to obtain social support. However, due to mixed findings in the literature, it is not clear whether media use in such a context would be pathogenic or salutogenic.

Objective: Therefore, the associations between COVID-19-related stressors and frequency of media use for information-seeking on trauma- and stressor-related (TSR) symptoms were examined while also investigating how social media use for support-seeking and peritraumatic distress interact with those variables.

Methods: A path model was tested in a sample of 5913 adults who completed an online survey.

Results: The number of COVID-19-related stressors (β=.25; P<.001) and extent of information-seeking through media (β=.24; P=.006) were significantly associated with the severity of TSR symptoms in bivariate comparisons. Associations between levels of peritraumatic distress and both COVID-19-related stressors and information-seeking through media, and social media use for support- and information-seeking through media were found (β_{COVID-19 stressors: Peritraumatic Distress Inventory}=.49, P<.001; β_{seeking information: Peritraumatic Distress Inventory}=.70, P<.001; β_{seeking information-seeking support}=.04, P<.001).

Conclusions: Results suggest that exposure to COVID-19-related stressors and seeking COVID-19-related information through the media are associated with higher levels of peritraumatic distress that, in turn, lead to higher levels of TSR symptoms. Although exposure to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic may be unavoidable, the frequency of COVID-19-related information consumption through various media should be approached with caution.

Keywords: COVID-19; behavior; distress; frequency; information-seeking; information-seeking behaviors; media; media use; risk; stress; support; symptom; trauma; trauma- and stressor-related symptoms.

©Marjolaine Rivest-Beauregard, Justine Fortin, Connie Guo, Sabrina Cipolletta, Ram P Sapkota, Michelle Lonergan, Alain Brunet. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 07.06.2022.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Social Media*