Panic-inducing Or Panic-reducing?How Czech Online News Outlets Can Potentially Spread Pandemic Panic During COVID-19

When the World Health Organization declared the covid-19 pandemic in March 2020,the virus was already spread across the globe with many countries declaring states of emergencies and imposing strict new rules and restrictions in hope of stopping the spread of the virus further.The Czech Republic was among the hardest hit countries during the second wave of the pandemic initiating its own lockdown,closing schools,and installing mandatory respirator usage in public places.This resulted in anxiety,stress and even panic among the Czech citizens.The main source of information about the pandemic and situation in the country itself were the Czech media.Especially online news cites,because they are the most read and trusted source of information in the Czech Republic.These media were the essential source portraying and conveying the ongoing situation and therefore had played the key role in people’s reactions and behavior connected with the pandemic.With that said,media are one of the most influential factors of spreading or reducing panic during a crisis situation such as a pandemic.With the use of content analysis this study analyzed two most read and trusted online news sites in the Czech Republic and their framing’s potential to spread pandemic panic.Czech media did have the potential to spread pandemic panic as they use mostly panic-inducing framing in their articles in contrast to panic-reducing framing.They tend to talk about the risks of the pandemic and assign blame to Czech politician for not being able to contain it.Some panic-reducing framing was also noticed in the articles mainly with mentioning or proposing solutions to the situation but was not enough to balance the panic-inducing framing.