ArticleEpidemiology and health2021
Words are not just words: how the use of media language in the COVID-19 era affects public health.
Article in Epidemiology and health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reporting maternal deaths in Anglophone West Africa: A media content analysis of articles published online between 2015 and 2025.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Examining the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and self-harm death counts in four Canadian provinces.Psychiatry research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesLanguage can shape the way we perceive the world. In this paper, we investigated how exposure to media texts containing alarming and militaristic language affects peoples' notions regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the consequences of this effect for public health.
methodsAfter reading a passage including either alarming and militaristic or neutral terminology on COVID-19, participants completed a questionnaire in which they answered 4 questions on a 7-point Likert scale. The questions assessed participants' notions on the end of the pandemic, vaccine effectiveness, and the consequences of COVID-19 for economies and mental health. Ordinal regression models in R were used for the analysis.
resultsIndividuals who were exposed to alarming and militaristic language expressed more pessimistic notions regarding COVID-19 than those who were exposed to more neutral language. However, both groups of individuals had similar notions regarding vaccine effectiveness.
conclusionsThe media should redefine the language they use for the description of the pandemic, considering that the extensive use of alarming and militaristic terminology may have a negative impact on public health.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.