Dynamics of the Media Effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infodemic

Abstract

The article presents the dynamics of the media effects of the coronavirus infodemic (COVID-19). A set of methods is used: case study, systematization, intent analysis, and secondary analysis of sociological and statistical data. Timeline of the study: March 1 – June 30, 2020. Based on the results of the study, it is concluded that the first “wave” of the coronavirus pandemic most clearly demonstrated the replacement of dominant media effects. If from mid-March to the end of April 2020, the construction of moral panic was observed, then from the beginning of May to mid-June 2020, compassion fatigue became prevalent in society. The factors that inspired such media effects are indicated. Cause-and-effect relationships between moral panic and compassion fatigue are fixed. On the basis of the results obtained, it is stated that at the turn of the 2010–2020s, a stress society was formed as a special social system, social ties, positions, and dispositions in which are largely explained through the factors of turbulence that exist in modern times and replace each other, leading to a paradigmatic loss of social, political, economic, and cultural stability, causing the permanent finding of individuals in a state of increased psycho-physiological stress. The legitimacy of putting forward the concept of a society of stress is substantiated, based on the existing socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural (including media communication) determinants. A perspectivization of the study is being built, which implies further conceptualization of this concept. The necessity of incorporating the category of stress society into the academic discourse of the social sciences is proved. Such methodological foundations will allow for systematic research of cultivated social reactions (primarily media effects), taking into account cause-and-effect relationships and interdependent patterns.