Risk communication and Covid-19 through the lens of anonymous sources

The extent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the health, social and economic crisis it caused, brought additional burden to journalists, but also new power. At a time when the pandemic dominated the media space, the media assumed a key role in explaining, interpreting and offering help in understanding the pandemic to the public. Reporting on the pandemic brought many challenges for journalists, as they had to adapt their activities in accordance with the new reality. When communicating about risks and reporting on sensitive topics that have a great social impact, to which the pandemic and Covid-19 undoubtedly belong, it is even more important that media reporting is based on ethical and professional standards, to be responsible and transparent. Especially in risk communication, in times of crisis, reliable and verified information must be provided to the public. In the study, we were interested in the research of the reliance of journalists on anonymous sources in reporting on the pandemic. The paper’s aim is was analyze the frequency of use of anonymous information according to different topics, type and tone of information, to see if anonymous media sources’ use varied in times of a pandemic. Articles about Covid-19 contained more primary information, but less secondary and tertiary anonymous information. In Covid-19 articles more anonymous information with neutral sentiment was presented, but, at the same time, there was less information with negative sentiment and no information with positive sentiment. Particularly worrying was a low share of articles with included clarification on granting anonymity, on the other hand, there were significantly more verified sources of anonymous information with Covid-19 articles.