Saved by the news? COVID-19 in German news and its relationship with regional mobility behaviour
研究德国区域新闻中COVID-19报道的频率和恐惧元素如何影响人们的社交距离行为，利用手机移动数据作为代理，发现新闻内容与社交距离存在显著但随时间变化的关系。
There are substantial differences across regions regarding COVID-19 infections and deaths, which are partly explained by differences in practicing social distancing. In this paper we argue that the portrayal of COVID-19 in regional media might be an important factor in explaining regional differences in social distancing. By using mobility as a proxy, and analysing data on regional news coverage in Germany, we investigate empirically whether the geographical heterogeneity in COVID-19-related news reporting has translated into spatial variations in social distancing. Our results confirm that the frequency of and the element of fear in COVID-19 news have a significant, albeit time-varying, relationship with social distancing.