Titel
COVID-19, digital media, and health: Lessons learned and the way ahead for the study of human communication
Autor*in
Kathrin Karsay
KU Leuven
Anne-Linda Camerini
USI Università della Svizzera Italiana
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital media played a pivotal role as a source of information, a tool for emotional expression, and, consequently, a determinant of psychological and social well-being. This article introduces a Special Section on COVID-19, digital media, and health. Based on the selected papers, we argue that the pandemic can serve as a magnifying glass to detect several critical reflection points for studying human communication. In particular, we conclude that the pandemic has aggravated existing differences in the effects of digital media, both in the positive (i.e., beneficial effects) and the negative (i.e., harmful effects) directions. We call on the field for a renewed focus on theory building, not just treating the pandemic as a special case but rather as a starting point for long-term, field-wide theory development. We also call for longitudinal, multidata, multiplatform, and multimethod designs.
Stichwort
health communicationdigital mediawell-beingmedia effects
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
Erschienen in
Titel
International Journal of Communication (IJoC)
Band
17
ISSN
1932-8036
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Seitenanfang
623
Seitenende
630
Publication
USC Annenberg Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2023 (Kathrin Karsay, Anne-Linda Camerini, and Jörg Matthes)
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