In one year, the Covid-19 has upset the world order and dominated the news. Too much to the taste of the French who estimate that the media have 74% « too much talk about the epidemic », according to the 34th Media Confidence Barometer conducted by Kantar Public for The cross. Although they recognize, at 64%, that the media have enabled them to understand this unprecedented situation, they are a majority – up to 78% among print media readers – to consider that journalists have « dramatized “ the events.
However, on the quality of the treatment of the crisis, the people questioned were quite divided, since 43% of them generally think that the subject was badly treated, while for 44%, that it went pretty well.
→ LARGE-FORMAT. The Covid-19 crisis reconciles (a little) the French and the media
A slim majority, 58%, however, thinks that the media have, about the epidemic, relayed false information. A particularly marked opinion, up to 66%, among regulars of 24-hour news channels.
Too much room for non-specialists
Whatever their main mode of information, a majority of French people – 73%, up to 80% among executives and intellectual professions – criticize the media for having given too much space to people who are not specialists in the subject. They also regret, at 61%, that the defenders of a « extreme point of view » have spoken too much. For example, only 39% of French people consider to have been well informed about the debate on chloroquine.
Regarding aspects of daily life, they consider that they have received sufficient practical advice, in particular on the application of barrier gestures and wearing a mask (90% of those questioned), as well as on the rules of confinement and deconfinement (77% ). On the other hand, they are 53% to say that they were poorly informed about the psychological consequences of confinement.
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