Audiences exist in highly personalised, high-choice media environments built on a hybrid of established traditional brands and informal digital networks. Officials trying to reach the public must navigate such spaces, but public reluctance to consume news coverage is a challenge for health and government officials when trying to communicate with and inform the public during a national health crisis like Covid-19. Based on a representative survey (N=2,031) from the 2021 Reuters Digital News Report, this article focuses on Irish audiences’ information sources during the pandemic; in particular, how government and political sources were used and perceived. The article is a secondary analysis of the data set and focuses on three questions from the survey related to (i) sources of information about Covid-19, (ii) concern about sources of false or misleading information about Covid-19, and (iii) sources of local information about politics and local updates on Covid-19. The article finds that official sources were relatively effective in being heard, and that health agencies like the Health Service Executive and the National Public Health Emergency Team were more salient than politicians, suggesting the pandemic was perhaps apolitical in the eyes of the public, which is often a key strategy for effective crisis communication. Politicians and government actors also succeeded in not being perceived as the main source of concern in terms of false or misleading information, as audiences were more worried about activists. The article also reiterates the importance of health officials reaching out beyond traditional news distribution channels to engage groups who may not access news through traditional channels.

中文翻译：

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Covid-19期间来自官方来源的爱尔兰观众和新闻信息

受众存在于高度个性化、高度选择的媒体环境中，该环境建立在成熟的传统品牌和非正式数字网络的混合体之上。试图接触公众的官员必须在这样的空间中穿行，但在像 Covid-19 这样的全国性健康危机期间，当试图与公众沟通和通知公众时，公众不愿消费新闻报道对卫生和政府官员来说是一个挑战。基于 2021 年的代表性调查 (N=2,031)路透社数字新闻报道，本文重点关注大流行期间爱尔兰受众的信息来源；特别是，政府和政治资源是如何被使用和感知的。这篇文章是对数据集的二次分析，重点关注调查中的三个问题，这些问题与 (i) 有关 Covid-19 的信息来源，(ii) 对有关 Covid-19 的虚假或误导性信息来源的担忧，以及 (iii) ) 有关政治的本地信息来源和有关 Covid-19 的本地更新。文章发现，官方消息来源相对有效地被听到，卫生服务执行官和国家公共卫生应急小组等卫生机构比政治家更突出，这表明这种流行病在公众眼中可能是非政治性的，这是通常是有效危机沟通的关键策略。政治家和政府行为者也成功地不被视为虚假或误导性信息方面的主要关注来源，因为观众更担心活动家。文章还重申了卫生官员超越传统新闻传播渠道与可能无法通过传统渠道获取新闻的群体接触的重要性。