Media Coverage and Depression Disorder Outcomes during COVID-19: An Exploratory Study in South Odisha

Manoj Deori^1*, Bharat Kumar Lakra², Ashutosh Muduli³

¹Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Tezpur University, Assam, India

²Department of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, Berhampur University, Odisha, India

³Department of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gujarat, India

*Corresponding Author:

Manoj Deori
Department of Mass Communication and Journalism,
Tezpur University,
Assam,
India,
Tel: 9864285683;
Email: manojdeori@tezu.ernet.in

Received: 23-Nov-2020, Manuscript No. GMJ-23-22402; Editor assigned: 26-Nov-2020, PreQC No. GMJ-23-22402 (PQ); Reviewed: 10-Dec-2020, QC No. GMJ-23-22402; Revised: 14-Jun-2023, Manuscript No. GMJ-23-22402 (R); Published: 12-Jul-2023, DOI: 10.36648/1550-7521.21.64.379

Citation: Deori M, Lakra BK, Muduli A (2023) Media Coverage and Depression Disorder Outcomes during COVID-19: An Exploratory Study in South Odisha. Global Media Journal, 21:64.

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Abstract

The community spread of the corona virus disease-19 catastrophe poses unprecedented challenges throughout the world. This disease does not only affect the physical heath but also has psychological impact on the people. The pandemic of corona virus has simultaneously induced an epidemic of tension and anxiety. As nation-wide lockdown were imposed and people were advised to stay at their homes to remain safe from the infection. The media coverage on COVID-19 continued to inform the people about the deaths due to the virus and about the worst scenario in the hospitals and plot of the migrant labourers and daily wage earners. This article examines to identify the factors which people perceive significant impact on psychological depression disorder by COVID-19. For this study primary data was collected from 102 respondents from South Odisha through questionnaire using Google docs. The factors impacting the depression disorder level was rated on Likert scale rating from strongly disagree 1 to strongly agree 5. Survey data was analysed by using statistical tool such as cronbach alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and regression analysis to find out significant psychological distress related factors during COVID-19. The result stated that people perceived anxiety related concerns on maximum stress related disorder and minimum on coping related concerns of psychological distress. Thus, people need to focus on prevention coping strategies to improve their physical and psychological health.

Keywords

COVID-19; Media coverage; Depression disorder; Outbreak; Pandemic; Psychological impact

Introduction

The spread of Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-19) was first time reported in the month of December, 2019 in humans in Wuhan (China) which caused physical as well as psychological effect on human civilization. The fear of infection, anxiety of losing family and relatives deeply impacted on the psychological distress among the people. The WHO has also made precaution of high risk spreading infectious coronavirus to other countries around the globe. The COVID-19 emerged at the end of 2019 became hostile to lives and health of the millions of the people around the world. The infectious disease has resulted halts activities on everyday life of the people. It’s natural to apprehend the effects of infectious deadly disease threat to manifest as sheer panic and anxiety: Worry about getting infection, worry about near dear ones for getting infection from COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak has the potential effect to increase depression disorder because of anxiety factors, fear factors, risk factors, behaviour factors and information factors about how the outbreak will affect them physically, psychologically and socially. Media consumers viewing stressful content like the severity of the outbreak, reports from hospital is associated with more negative affect, depression, anxiety and stress. Whereas viewing heroic acts, speeches from experts and knowledge of the disease and prevention were associated with more positive affect and less depression [1].

The outbreak of coronavirus 19 disease in Wuhan (China) in the month of December 2019 was created havoc to the world. In January 2020, The World Health Organization declared this outbreak as international public health emergency of the world concern. Figured out that in COVID-19 pandemic, medical staffs in the Wuhan have been undergoing mental stress on the risk of transmission of disease which leads to frustration, anxiety and patients with negative feeling and discrimination. Revealed that SARS outbreak in Singapore in the year 2003, around 27 percent of the health care workers had reported symptom of psychiatric. Examined that at the time of ebola outbreaks in Sierra in the year 2014 and in the Congo in 2018, medical staffs had experienced more stress and anxiety among them [2]. Fear of uncertaininty things leads to higer anxiety and stress level in the people whose having pre-existing pschological problems and afraid of social discrimination, sigmatization. Made an investigation on the topic psychological effects of the ebola epidemic on people, society and the world.

The study revealed that people expericnced high level of negative emotional impact because of seeing people’s death and fear of death. Made a study by taking sample of 1,563 health professionals and revealed 50.7 percent of the respondents were having depression symptions, 44 percent anxiety and 36.1 percnent participants were suffering from sleep disturbance. He concluded that rapid spreading of the COVID-19 would be increasing the possibility of psychological suffering and anxiety [3]. Revealed that healthcare workers undergo traumatic anxiety, nervousness and hopelessness symptions even after the outbreak of SARS. Explored that intial pschological replied of the population from January 31 to 2 February 2020, within two weeks the country’s outburst of COVID-19. The study findings reported 53.8 percent of the respondents rated the pschological impact of outbreak as moderate or severe; 16.5 percent of respondents reported moderate to severe depressive symptions; 28.8 percent of sample reported moderated to high level of anxiety symptions and 8.1 percent repoted moderated to high levels stress. Evaluated that outbreak of COVID-19 has tremandious impact on the pschological problems in different subpopulation which has caused an emerging big problems for the mental health service in research study received a total of 52730 respondents form Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan valid responses got February 10, 2020. Study revaled that almost 35 percnet of the respondents expericenced pschological distress [4].

The above review examined the pschological effects of coronavirus-19 and its casual relationship with the stress disoder among the people during the amid of COVID-19. After reading various available literature, one thing that comes to the fore is that, till date very few studies have been conducted on media use and the effects of media consumption during a pandemic. At the same time, it must be admitted that in the last century there has been no outbreak of a pandemic in the scale of COVID-19. Hence, the scope for carrying out such studies was not available either [5].

But other studies have analysed the severe psychological impact directly associated with media consumption after a traumatic experience, among respondents who have been directly affected by such traumatic events as conventional terrorism, bioterrorism, warnd natural disasters [6].

Also, a few studies have shown that media content that induces stress has a huge negative impact on the media consumers. Who conducted a study among the Jewish population in Israel found that viewers who regularly consumed media content, whether via traditional or new media, showed greater levels of anxiety. It may be noted that, most studies on disaster, media and psychological outcomes have dealt with long-term psychological outcomes, as reflected in the study conducted including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, stress reactions, anxiety and substance abuse [7].

Materials and Methods

According to Van witnessing the traumatic course of the infection in others can result in fear and anxiety about becoming ill or dying themselves. Moreover, access to reliable information about an outbreak is widely supported as key resource to maintain wellbeing. Thus, the media should play an important role in providing such information that may also result in positive psychological impact [8].

Objectives

In this study, the researchers have following objectives:

• To study the factors of psychological depression disorder of the people of being infected by COVID-19.
• To examine the factors of psychological depression which have significant impact on perception of the people by COVID-19.
• To examine the role of media in creating positive and negative psychological impacts.

Research hypothesis

The researchers proposes the following hypothesis:

• H1: Anxiety of getting infection by COVID-19 positively affects depression disorder.
• H2: Fear of infection by COVID-19 positively affects depression disorder.
• H3: Coping with the COVID-19 negatively related to depression disorder.
• H4: Risk of getting COVID-19 positively affects depression disorder.
• H5: Behaviour trigger by COVID-19 positively affects depression disorder.
• H6: Media content information about COVID-19 positively affects depression disorder.

Research model for the propose study (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Research model for the propose study.

Data and sample

The respondents were drawn from the general public of South Odisha (Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts) at time of the COVID-19 outbreak. The self-structure survey questionnaire was administered to the respondents through goggle docs by whatsapp and email. The source of data collection was firsthand data [9]. The data was received from the general population profile (Table 1).

Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents.

Measures

The questionnaire was consisting of twenty-two items designed in English language to facilitate the respondent to measure the psychological depression disorder impacts and its antecedent’s variable includes anxiety, fear, risk, information, coping and behavioural factor of COVID-19. The survey questionnaires were completed by 102 adult (18 years or older) who are aware about virus and they are not infected by COVID-19. The survey comprises of a series of statements for all variables. In the study area was recorded on a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The numerical value from 1 to 5 (Tables 2 and 3).

Table 2. Factors affecting reliability test.

Table 3. Communalities of variables.

Data analysis

The data has been analysed by using IBM SPSS software. The internal consistency of the scales were checked by testing Cronbach’s alpha. As shown in the value of KMO test was above 0.70. The validity of instrument was checked by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and multiple regression using software. CFA has been used for checking the model fit whereas multiple regression was used to identify the relative contribution of anxiety, fear of catching infection, coping with COVID-19, risk of getting COVID-19, behaviour trigger by COVID-19 and media information about COVID-19 on depression disorder. Hypotheses testing was conducted by multiple regression analysis test [10].

Factor analysis

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett’s were used to check the suitability of data for factor analysis. Displays that Bartlett test of sphericity has a p-value of 0.000 which determined the statistical significance indicating appropriateness of patterned relationship among the variables. KMO test represent the sample adequacy at 0.711 for testing which denotes the degree of inter-correlations among the variable and testing for the factor analysis (Table 4) [11].

Table 4. KMO and Bartlett’s test.

The total variance explained by each variable was more than 0.5; it shows that a considerable amount of variance among all the variables. Specify that six factors were identified from factor analysis by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using varimax rotation. These six factors were extracted which were all together in total explained 60. 21 percent of total variance. With the criterion of retaining only factors having eigenvalue of one or greater, six factors were retained for rotation. These six factors accounted for variance 21.90 percent, 13.37 percent, 8.03 percent, 6.30 percent, 5.50 percent and 5.08 percent respectively (Table 5) [12].

Table 5. Factor analysis of components.

The six factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis by applying extraction method of principal component analysis and rotation method of varimax with kaiser normalization. The unroated and roated componet martimax was performed. After roation, the six factors structure were formed. These six factors were anxiety related concern which includes six items, fear related concern consist of four items, coping stratey concern consist of five items, risk related concern consist of three items, behaviour related concern consits of two items and media information concern consist of two items (Table 6).

Table 6. Exploratory factor analysis.

The reliability analysism was performed. The Cronbach’s alpha value for all the six factos were greater than 0.7. Normality test was analysied for factor score to check scores are normally distributed or not. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and shapirowilk test were done [13]. The significance value was more than 0.05. Thus, the factor scores are normally distributed. Hence parameteric tests were used (Table 7).

Table 7. Test of normality.

Hypothese testing

Multiple regression test statistics is used to test the hypothesis related to impact of determinants of the depression disorder (dependant variable) on COVID-19 psychological factors (independent variable). The results of multiple regression analysis are depicted in Table 8. For the anxiety related concern, fear related concern, risk related concern, behaviour related concern and media information concern and the respective significant values are 0.011, 0.000, 0.000, 0.010, 0.000 and 0.044. This indicates that hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H5, and H6 are accepted and H4 is rejected with significant value 0.352. Outcome of hypothesis testing result is shown in Table 9. The result found that anxiety factor has taken the maximum beta value of 0.373 with p-value at 0.000 which is lower than the significance level of 0.05. This shows anxiety related concern has highest impact on the psychological depression disorder among the people during the COVID-19.

Table 8. Coefficients of model.

Table 9. Outcome of hypothesis testing.

Discussion

The study examined impact of the COVID-19 related psychological factors on stress disorder during the outbreak and lockdown in India. The study attempts to explore factors that affect the level of stress disorder among the people during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the hypothesis of this study, researcher proposed that six factors namely anxiety, fear, risk, behaviour, coping factor and information would be positively related with stress disorder. Findings of the study result suggested that anxiety, risk, behaviour, media information have significant impact on psychological depression level during COVID-19 whereas coping factor is insignificantly related to psychological depression level [14].

In this study five hypothesis such as anxiety, fear, risk, behaviour and information about COVID-19 were positively related to stress disorder. The independent variables altogether have impacted on depression disorder is explained 81.6 percent (R-square) in the regression model summary (Table 10) [15].

Table 10. Regression model summary.

The result agrees with several studies conducted earlier. For example, a survey conducted at Hong Kong on SARS outbreak shows that respondents responded on anxiety had mean score of ≥ 3, indicating very anxiety among them. A study of China on general population (n=1210) online survey results indicates that 16.5 percent experienced severe depressive symptoms; 28.8 percent moderate to severe symptoms; 8.1 percent moderate to severe stress.

The study result shows that coping factor of COVID-19 is insignificantly related stress disorder. A detailed examination of the coping factor related question suggests that Indians did not valued expert advice, staying connected with family and friends, confidence on doctors, encouragement from family and friends and hope for COVID-19 ending soon. The result surprises and contrary to most of the existing studies related to pandemic. This may be because of the sudden lock down declared which further extended for months. The unexpected lock down created a panic environment leading to high stress level among the people (Table 11).

Table 11. Analysis of variance.

Conclusion

This study attempted to find out COVID-19 impact on the psychological stress disorder among the people along with the determination of psychological and emotional factors of coronavirus-19. The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered tremendous psychological complications among the people. This infectious disease has made people life very vulnerable and devastating living conditions including restriction on travelling, closure of schools, business, shops and factories has brought stress disorder in the among people which brought about negative psychological impacts among the people like stress and anxiety etc. The results states that anxiety, risk, behaviour, information have an impact on psychological distress disorder level during COVID-19. Anxiety related factor is the most important factor for the stress disorder of COVID-19. The study results also indicate that anxiety is the most important factor that is 37.3 percent predictor of psychological distress disorder level during COVID-19.

Implications for Theory and Practice

The implication of this study is that it assesses the general people depression disorder during the COVID-19 outburst. This would be helpful in understanding its impacts and consequences of psychological state of mind of the general population. This study would be also helpful to assess changes in depression disorder among the people. This research also helpful to the media mangers to design and plan the contextual strategy, which will address the factual information about information. It should be carefully chosen to give information to the society. Thus, it can be recommended that learn how to protect yourself and others form COVID-19. Take care of yourself and be supportive to others at this time. Dealing emotional and psychological health during this pandemic time is as vital as managing your physical health. During this time of stress, pay attention and priority to your own needs and feelings. Engagement in healthy activities that you love and get enjoyment and feeling relaxing which enable you to keep optimistic in this COVID-19 pandemic.

Limitations and Scope for Future Research

Limitations are part of any kind of research work. So, the present study is supposed to be not free from limitations. First, survey data obtaining from one region of Odisha limits the generalizability of the findings to other geographic areas. The survey was limited to COVID-19 outbreak and did not considers other potentials variables such as pre-existing psychological disorder or individual personality issues before pandemic. The future research can be conducted focus on workplace safety and COVID-19 in the industries considering other aspects of psychological impact of COVID-19 like safety climate, safety communication and risk of workplace infections.

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