ABSTRACT
Pollock’s community structure theory was used to compare city characteristics and newspaper coverage of state/local government responses to COVID-19 in 23 major US cities, sampling all 250+ word articles from January 28, 2020 to March 4, 2020. The resulting 321 articles were coded for “prominence” and “direction” (“favorable/unfavorable/balanced-neutral coverage), then combined into each newspaper’s composite “Media Vector” (range = 0.4082 to −0.0713, or 0.4795). Fourteen of 23 newspapers (61%) manifested favorable coverage of government coronavirus responses.
Pearson correlations and regression analysis confirmed a robust “vulnerability” pattern (media “mirror” the interests of marginal or disadvantaged groups). Healthcare indicators (hospital beds/100,000) were connected to “less favorable” coverage, whereas economic privilege (families with income $200,000+) was associated with “more favorable” reporting. The most powerful city demographic linked to coverage, “negative” reporting on state/local COVID-19 responses, was percentage of Mainline Protestants, accounting for 30.5% of the variance. Previous research had found Mainline Protestant membership aligned with “positive” coverage of progressive issues (e.g., “Occupy” movement, marijuana legalization, and detainee rights at Guantanamo Bay). But dwindling number of Mainline Protestants since the 1960s may have rendered a belief system renowned for its roots in self-reliance increasingly “vulnerable” confronting mandatory pandemic lockdown measures.
