Browsing by Author "Gavrilescu, Mihai"

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Do conspiracy theories circulating in the media or their debunking affect people’s trust in the media?
(Maison des Sciences de l'Homme , SAGE Publications, 2023) Corbu, Nicoleta; Bârgăoanu, Alina; Udrea, Georgiana; Gavrilescu, Mihai
The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered an unprecedented number of conspiracy theories about the virus and the vaccine against the disease. Current research has tried to make sense of the effects of conspiracy narratives and debunking them in both mainstream and social media. However, the effect of such narratives or their debunking on media trust has not been investigated to date. By means of a 2 × 2 experimental design (N = 945) in Romania, we investigate how mainstream and social media content containing conspiracy theories about vaccination against COVID-19 and debunking them influence people’s trust in both mainstream and social media. People’s own beliefs in such narratives are used as moderators of these effects. Findings show that only the debunking content circulating in mainstream media decreases people’s trust in both mainstream and social media, and only for people exhibiting high levels of belief in conspiracy theories, that is only when people are exposed to counter-attitudinal content. Implications for stakeholders are discussed.
Key Words Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic. Comparing the Media and the Public Agenda
(Babeş-Bolyai University, 2021) Buturoiu, Raluca; Gavrilescu, Mihai
Based on recent ramifications of the traditional agenda-setting model, this paper aims at analyzing the convergence of the media and the public agenda in times of crisis. Specifically, drawing upon the network agenda-setting theory, this article explores the main key words associated with COVID-19—related topics in both the media and the public agendas. Main findings suggest that the media used context dependent key words to refer to the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, both television and online news stories referred to issues related to the virus itself, to the measures taken to limit its spread, and to some medical conditions, while in January 2021 media focused on key words related to vaccination and immunization. In terms of public agenda, results show that people tended to refer to pandemic-related issues mainly in negative terms, due to both media exposure and, presumably, personal experiences. These results offer valuable insights into the dynamics of both media and public agenda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing fertile ground for better understanding how media shape several public attitudes and behaviors.