Online information seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-country analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the coronavirus-related web-searching patterns of people from the 10 most affected nations in September 2020. The authors extracted all searches for the sample nations, consisting of the two words ‘COVID-19’ and ‘coronavirus’ and their variations, from Google Trends for the complete year of 2020. The results showed a discrepancy due to the priority of the language used during searches for coronavirus-related information. The time span of the attention level of citizens towards coronavirus-related information was relatively short (about one month). This supports the assumption of the activation model of information exposure that information which generates a negative affect is not welcomed by users. The findings have practical implications for governments and health authorities in, for example, launching information services for citizens in the early months of a pandemic and them remaining as the preferred source of information for citizens.