Since the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in March 2020, most news reports through the mass media and internet have contained information related to this infection. In Korea, the director of the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has held a daily media briefing regarding the confirmed cases and mortality rate of the disease. The Korean government also sends COVID-19-related emergency alerts simultaneously to all mobile phone users in Korea at city and district levels. These messages include details of recently confirmed cases and contact-tracing information, including the time and location of infected peoples’ visits [1]. Media reports on an epidemic can provide important information to the public and can induce positive health behavior in individuals [2]. However, the mass media also transmits the negative impact of disasters, which is a risk factor for emotional problems [3].

Fear increases in the face of an uncertain or uncontrollable threat and during a health crisis, and public depends on the media to seek out confirmation and make decisions regarding preventative behavior [4,5]. Previous study suggested the importance of providing timely and accurate information to the public in ensuring that people are able to avoid the risk of infection [6]. With the development of information and communication technology (ICT) of Korea, citizens have been able to access COVID-19 related information on various channels. However, there is insufficient evidence on factors associated with negative emotional responses to COVID-19-related information received by text alert messages or through the news media. Therefore, this study focused on the traditional news media and national emergency alert text messages provided during the COVID-19 outbreak to explore factors associated with negative emotional perception of the information delivery methods. We believe that our study can contribute to developing effective public strategies to reduce negative emotional responses related to exposure to COVID-19 information.

In this study, it was found that negative emotional perception on news media (43.7%) that can be voluntarily accessed was relatively greater than emergency alert message which is almost compulsory and sudden (32.9%). While information via news coverages may involve subjective interpretation and carry a considerable amount of aversive images, emergency alert text message is focused on conveying identified facts, tracing information of confirmed case, which can help citizens decide their actions right away. Our results suggest that citizens exposed to pandemic situation may feel more helpful with accurate and prompt information via alert message.

In this study, fear of COVID-19 infection was significantly associated with negative emotional perceptions of both types of online media. The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by the “infodemic,” which refers to the perils of excessive information in relation to COVID-19, including misinformation and fake news through social media [11]. Media reporting can produce secondary trauma and has been criticized for creating public fear in the face of emerging health threats [12]. The results of our study imply that the media needs to reduce excessive fear by providing information that is correct and can aid citizens’ comprehension. Fear of the disclosure of contact-tracing information was significantly associated with a negative emotional response only for emergency alert text messages about COVID-19. Many have pointed out that the disclosure of information is a main component that contributed to the rapid spread of infectious disease [13]. Information spread through mass media is important for physical distancing, which is one of the most effective strategies for preventing the spread of this virus. However, as excessive disclosure of personal information may cause negative emotions in citizens, it is necessary to share information carefully, considering the pros and cons of information disclosure.

Notably, Daegu, the city with the biggest outbreak, was associated with less fearful perception of COVID-19 information via emergency text messages in this study. The fear response of Daegu citizens to alert message may have been reduced by excessive COVID-19 related information in the face of a surge in new confirmed cases and exposure to a continuous threat. A similar phenomenon has been described as ‘media fatigue.’ [14] It has been shown that individuals may be more likely to take precautions against disease with the initial reports of an epidemic, but individual sensitivity and emotional responsiveness may diminish after repeated media exposure [15,16]. Our results suggest that collective emotional insensitivity may occur in the epicenter of an infectious disease outbreak compared to other areas with fewer confirmed cases.

We found that high reporting of anxiety and stress was associated with a negative emotional perception of COVID-19 information. Preexisting mental health conditions can predict the reaction to media reports [17]. Anxiety symptoms result in distorted information processing, leading to perceptual bias [18]. Our result suggests that anxiety may have significant impact on emotional interpretation when people exposed to media, which may provoke fear. Furthermore, high stress and anxiety levels are associated with maladaptive coping strategies, such as avoidance and rumination in stressful situations [19]. High levels of stress are associated with maladaptive coping strategies such as avoidance and rumination [19-21]. It is possible that this maladaptive coping under high stressful condition may serve to overly focus on the signs of threat and rise negative emotion. Our results suggest that improving individuals’ ability to regulate emotions and effective strategies for coping with stress are needed to increase comfortable acceptance of COVID-19 information and to take proven precautionary measures. It is also recommended that people with high anxiety and distress reduce the time they spend searching for news.

With regard to sociodemographic factors, we found that female was associated with the perception of fear on both news and emergency alert message about COVID-19 information. This is in line with previous studies, indicating that after traumatic events, women reported greater trauma-related fear than men [22,23]. Recent studies conducted during COVID-19 pandemic also reported that women had more psychological symptoms including anxiety and post-traumatic stress than males [24,25]. We found that marital status was associated with the negative emotional perception on emergency text message. It is possible that there were many other family members besides themselves who could be a potential case for COVID-19 infection, so they might have to deal with the fears of shame, blame, and stigma caused by uncontrollable family member’s contact with virus whenever they received the alert text.

Some potential limitations should be noted in this study. First, our cross-sectional study design did not allow us to establish a causal relationship between psychosocial factors and the responses of participants for information exposure. In addition, we did not distinguish between the immediate emotional response to the alert messages and the underlying/chronic emotional status related to COVID-19. Therefore, longitudinal studies and additional analyses are needed. Second, the lack of structured interviews to assess psychological status may have confounded our results. Third, as the survey was conducted online, which is suitable for rapid assessment, so some respondent bias, such as elder citizens, may have affected the results.

In conclusion, our findings showed that COVID-19 related fear of including privacy exposure as well as infection could increase the negative emotional response on online media. In addition, individuals with anxiety and stress were vulnerable to negative emotion for COVID-19 information. During an ongoing threat from a novel disease and the long-lasting COVID-19 pandemic, we need to establish effective communication measures that will reduce the public’s fears and increase preventive healthy behaviour.