The effect of big-city news on rural America during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Can "urban-centric" local television news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic affect the behavior of rural residents with lived experiences so different from their "local" news coverage? Leveraging quasi-random geographic variation in media markets for 771 matched rural counties, we show that rural residents are more likely to practice social distancing if they live in a media market that is more impacted by COVID-19. Individual-level survey responses from residents of these counties confirm county-level behavioral differences and help attribute the differences we identify to differences in local television news coverage-self-reported differences only exist among respondents who prefer watching local news, and there are no differences in media usage or consumption across media markets. Altho

SUBMITTER: Kim E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7486744 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature