It was pleasing to read an interesting article entitled ‘COVID-19 media fatigue: predictors of decreasing interest and avoidance of COVID-19–related news’ that was recently published in your valuable journal.1 This study is of great importance because it explores the association of interest in news about COVID-19 with adherence to public health measures.
In recent months, several studies have investigated the different aspects of COVID-19–related news. For example, the role of COVID-19–related news in the volatility prediction of crude oil future markets was considered by Niu et al.2 In addition, Sun et al.3 reported the effects of COVID-19–related news on the markets' medical portfolios of different countries.
The work of Buneviciene et al.1 focused on individuals who were fluent in Lithuanian, and although the results may not be generalisable to other regions of the world, their findings can help other investigators with the interpretation of their experimental data.
I would like to tackle the issue of the role of COVID-19–related news items from another point of view. Therefore, I considered the COVID-19–related news of a popular Iranian news media, named Tabnak. The number of published COVID-19–related news items was extracted over two time periods (each time period lasted almost 3 months).
The first data set consists of COVID-19–related news items that were published in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Iran (i.e. between 22 February and 13 May, 2020). Collection of the second data set was matched to the same time period of data collection as in the study by Buneviciene et al.1 (i.e. between 1 October and 20 December, 2020).
News items with the word ‘corona’ in the heading or text were recorded as COVID-19–related news. The analysis indicated that the number of COVID-19–related news items in the first and second data sets was 9135 and 4798, respectively. Thus, a 47.5% reduction in publication of COVID-19–related news was seen between these two time periods.
From the supply-demand point of view, results suggest that there has been a considerable loss of interest in COVID-19–related news items. The interaction between supply and demand of a source is explained by the law of supply and demand. Usually, the price of a source will increase with low supply and high demand.4 In the case of COVID-19–related news in Iran, the price is stable and the news supply has decreased. Hence, it may be concluded that a reduction in demand has been attained.
Although different methods of analysis were used in the study by Buneviciene et al.1 their findings also confirm a decreasing interest in news items about the COVID-19 pandemic over time.
Finally, it is hoped that other aspects related to the dissemination of COVID-19–related news will be studied in the near future.
Acknowledgements
Support from the Quchan University of Technology is appreciated by the author.
References
- 1.Buneviciene I., Bunevicius R., Bagdonas S., Bunevicius A. COVID-19 media fatigue: predictors of decreasing interest and avoidance of COVID-19–related news. Publ Health. 2021;196:124–128. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2021.05.024. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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- 4.Law of supply and demand [Internet]. [cited 2021 july 2]. Available from: https://www.financereference.com/law-of-supply-and-demand/.