UK Public Opinion Polarised on News Coverage of Government Coronavirus Response, and Concern over Misinformation

Abstract

In this RISJ Factsheet we examine people’s attitudes towards how news organisations, government and other institutions are responding to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK. This is the second in a series of ten factsheets based on an ongoing online panel survey of a representative sample of the UK population, fielded from 24 April to 28 April 2020. We find that: (i) judgement of news coverage is polarised along political lines, with 63% on the left feeling the news media have not been critical enough, and 66% of those on the right saying news media have been too critical of the government, (ii) 51% of respondents on the left are very or extremely concerned about false or misleading information from the UK government, versus 22% among those on the right, (iii) almost half (46%) say the UK government’s response has been worse than other countries, but again, results are polarised.