ABSTRACT. Employing recent research results covering fake news content shaping the COVID-19 pandemic fear, and building my argument by drawing on data collected from Gallup, GlobalWebIndex, Knight Foundation, Ofcom, Pew Research Center, Public Knowledge, Statista, and University of Canberra, I performed analyses and made estimates regarding the relationship between virus anxiety, emotional contagion, and responsible media reporting. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the collected data.

Keywords: COVID-19; fake news; fear; virus anxiety; emotional contagion

How to cite: Dobson-Lohman, E., and Potcovaru, A.-M. (2020). “Fake News Content Shaping the COVID-19 Pandemic Fear: Virus Anxiety, Emotional Contagion, and Responsible Media Reporting,” Analysis and Metaphysics 19: 94–100. doi:10.22381/AM19202011

Received 27 June 2020 • Received in revised form 27 September 2020
Accepted 29 September 2020 • Available online 1 October 2020