Keep the trust

By Ian Silvera

The truth is at a premium at the moment as millions of people glue themselves to their screens to find out the latest information relating to the epidemic. That puts a greater emphasis on the news media and pollsters, the gatekeepers of good information.

The Newgate Research team Down Under has launched a new and major online tracking study of more than 1,000 Australians to find out their concerns and opinions around the Covid-19 outbreak. The full poll, which will drop once a week, can be found here. Among the top findings is that more than three quarters (77%) of Australians were most worried about the overall economic impact of the virus. That trumped ‘regular health services not being available’ at 67%.

US newsletter Axios has also launched its own Coronavirus-related survey with Ipsos MORI. The poll, of more than 1,000 Americans, discovered that Democrats and Republicans were divided in their fear, with twice as many Democrats as Republicans saying they're ‘very concerned’.

The Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, meanwhile, has republished its findings around misinformation. It’s very much worth your time, particularly is you are in the media industry. A positive finding was that the apparent rise in misinformation was pushing people towards reputable news outlets. 

Finally, global leaders are using war-like terminology as they enact more measures to combat Covid-19. Unfortunately, Glastonbury and Eurovision have met their own ‘Waterloo’ today and announced that the song contest and festival will be cancelled. We’re all super troupers now.