Negotiating news seeking and news avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Expanding coping theory

In-depth interviews with 150 adults in South Korea in 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal that people utilized problem-focused coping by increasing news consumption to stay informed in a significant threat. Emotional arousal also influenced news behavior, with strong emotions prompting further information seeking, while overload feelings led to news avoidance. Participants negotiated between seeking and avoiding news, employing various selective engagement tactics such as seeking positive news, non-news, and alternative sources, diversifying news types, and taking news detoxes. Post-pandemic, about 90% reverted to pre-pandemic news habits, though 10% permanently altered their news consumption.