Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 7, 2025

Author Spotlight: Advancements in Multiplex Detection of Respiratory Viruses
Published on: November 10, 2023
Selected by expertise? Scientific experts in German news coverage of COVID-19 compared to other pandemics
Melanie Leidecker-Sandmann1, Patrizia Attar1, Annika Schütz1
1Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Abstract:
At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific expertise was and is more in demand than perhaps ever before. Scientific "experts" serve as an important source of information for journalists and for society. Our study analyzes, which experts get a chance to speak in German news coverage of COVID-19 compared to other pandemics, how diverse the spectrum of selected experts is and how their scientific expertise is to be assessed. Our findings show that the COVID-19 coverage is dominated by actors from the political executive and less than in previous pandemics by scientific experts. In addition, the coronavirus debate is characterized by a greater diversity of expert voices and the journalistic selection of scientific experts is biased in favor of those who have a high scientific expertise. On average, COVID-19 coverage seems to be biased more pronouncedly in favor of reputable scientific experts compared to previous debates on pandemics.
More Related Videos
10:53Concentration of Virus Particles from Environmental Water and Wastewater Samples Using Skimmed Milk Flocculation and Ultrafiltration
Published on: March 17, 2023
08:41Live Imaging and Quantification of Viral Infection in K18 hACE2 Transgenic Mice Using Reporter-Expressing Recombinant SARS-CoV-2
Published on: November 5, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Comparing the Survival Analysis of Two or More Groups
Causality in Epidemiology
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Principles of Disease Surveillance
Statistical Methods for Analyzing Epidemiological Data