Public perception of media’s role during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh

Abstract

This article represents an example of a non-Western study into the public perception of the mass media’s role during the coronavirus pandemic in Bangladesh, which is of particular importance given the global environment of a high level of informational uncertainty and health risk that is equally applicable to countries around the world. Quantitative research methodology was used to gather perceptions of citizens across the country on the role and performance of the mass media’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. The responses gathered demonstrated that the pandemic generated an increased demand for news and information on the virus, which was used as a means of attempting to reduce personal risk and harm. In this time of an increased demand for information, respondents tended to perceive the information that they received from mainstream media news sources as being credible and rated media performance positively. This final observation is seemingly bucking the general global trend of decreased public trust in news media sources.