Journalistic communication in times of pandemic: analysis of the treatment of COVID-19 in the European press

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of the society, from economy to culture, education and the critical issue of health. The treatment of a country’s press can be a good indicator about the concerns and interests of its citizens. Following this indicator, this work aims to analyse the European media during a specific period to identify national concerns and interests. Besides, it is intended to identify, if they exist, differences between the group of countries most affected by the pandemic and the group less affected by it. The Factiva news database of Dow Jones & Reuters has been used to obtain the news and headlines published by the six countries analyzed for a month. Group 1, the most affected, is made up of Italy, Spain, and Belgium. Group 2 countries are Germany, Austria, and Ireland. The results show that the degree of involvement by COVID-19 has marked the treatment offered by the press to the coverage of the health crisis, both in terms of the issues and the number of news items published, as well as the concentration of media and authors.