Coronavirus pandemic analysis and information transmission: media hype, media coverage, infodemic, and the spread of misinformation

Abstract In a novel approach from a global perspective, the recently developed spillover effect provides relevant information transmission among coronavirus-related daily reports (i.e. cases of coronavirus, recoveries from coronavirus sickness, and deaths from coronavirus) and media-related aspects (these are the media hype index, media coverage index, infodemic index, and fake news index) through December 7th 2020 to October 9th 2021. The above-mentioned pandemic and media parameters are employed to examine the nature of information transmission during the coronavirus pandemic. The findings revealed a total of 31.7% information transmission among the examined indicators, thus offering reliable evidence of connectedness. The daily deaths from covid-19 shows a net information transmission of 72% because it transmits a total shock of 88.1% and received only 16.1% of shock transmission from the system. Additionally, daily recovery is also a net transmitter of shock in the system with 0.8% while daily cases of covid-19 pandemic is a net receiver of information shock from system by receiving (-) 35.2%. As the only net transmitter of information, media hype transmits 105% and receives 28.4% of system information, thus providing a net shock of 76.6% in the system. This result signifies that over-reporting of prevailing event or situation such as the covid-19 pandemic potentially has a rebound effect. Moreover, the magnitude of net spillover effect received are: infodemic received 60.3% of transmitted shock, media coverage received 45.5% of transmitted shock, fake news received (-) 10.8% of transmitted shock, and panic index received (-) 0.8% of transmitted shock. Given this perspective of information transmission via media aspects and coronavirus reporting, this study further offers insight on the criticality of media during global emergency, thus significantly contributing to body of knowledge.