ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two issues: the relationship between media cynicism and risk perception; and the relationship between risk perception and civil values amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since risk perception is based on information about risk sources, evaluations on information sources can influence how risk perception is shaped. Along with the global decline of the press credibility, one of the serious problems with people’s attitude to the news media is “media cynicism,” defined as an attitude of despising and ridiculing the news media. As media cynicism increases, people may use alternative media other than mass media to obtain risk information, affecting their risk perception. The results of surveys conducted in Japan and Korea in 2021 do not support these conventional assumptions. However, media cynicism was negatively related to the overall use of information sources of COVID-19. In addition, the survey findings demonstrate that increased risk perception is associated with attitudes that accept more restrictive preventive measures to contain the pandemic. By bringing about a general decline in media use, this chapter argues that media cynicism may hinder the reception of appropriate risk information and suppress the rise in risk perception of infectious diseases, thereby making it difficult to formulate new civic values needed in the era of pandemics.
