The Role of Political Polarization on American and Australian Trust and Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Understanding citizens’ use and trust in media are essential during a global health crisis when governments need to provide reliable information to enact public measures to reduce rates of illness and death. This chapter examines these relationships through repeated surveys in two comparable liberal democracies, the USA and Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds that news engagement increased markedly in both countries in 2020 during the pandemic with television and newspapers being the most relied upon sources. Media trust was higher for citizens who prioritized established news sources and medical experts for coronavirus information. Yet, there is clear evidence that people’s news preferences are associated with their level of concern about the virus and support for government measures to contain it. Trump supporters were more inclined to trust information from family and friends on social media than from professional journalists. They were the group least concerned about catching the virus and most dissatisfied with government lockdown measures. The chapter finds greater political and media polarization and partisan distrust of experts in the USA compared to Australia. It concludes that polarization has serious real-world consequences for governments’ capacities to protect public health in this time of crisis.