Agendamelding and COVID-19: Political Polarization in COVID Coverage

• In Event: COVID Communication and Politics

Abstract

How do individuals’ desires to know more and media’s desire to draw more audience converge on COVID-19? Using an original dataset of millions of tweets and content analysis, we examine the agendamelding process during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Like other issues in American public opinion, attitudes on COVID-19 (e.g., causes, consequences, effects, etc.) are increasingly polarized along partisan lines, but the extent to which media contribute to this is as of yet unexplored. Using agendamelding as a theoretical framework, we show how the ideology of media outlets contributes to this polarization and is reinforced over time. We find that between December 2019 and June 2020 coverage shifted from largely science-based and non-partisan to increasingly partisan with specific frames being preferred by media and individuals on the right and left of American politics. In May and June 2020, the discussion of COVID-19 became distinctly partisan and polarized. Using our approach, however, we show that this polarization is not one-way, but rather individuals and media work together to set the agenda—particularly within ideologically homogeneous media ecosystems.

Author

• James Benjamin Taylor, Kennesaw State University