Finns trust authorities more than social media for coronavirus info: survey

Concerning the COVID-19-related news and information, Finns trust the authorities, experts and traditional media more than social media, reported news agency Xinhua, quoting a survey conducted by the University of Helsinki.

The survey, published on Monday, showed that 92 percent of respondents trusted medical experts, who posted information about the pandemic.

More than 70 percent thought that physicians, researchers and the Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) were the best sources of accurate information.

Confidence in the reliability of traditional news media was also quite strong. The poll showed that around 60 percent of respondents thought that news media were generally reliable, with a higher trust placed in traditional media.

"And the confidence levels were higher during the pandemic than in similar surveys conducted in previous years," said Janne Matikainen, research director of the survey, in the press release issued by the University of Helsinki on Monday.

According to the poll, the news media received good reviews. About 80 percent of respondents thought that the news media has offered information about how to act during the pandemic and helped them to understand the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

The survey also showed that Finns highly believed in the reliability of politicians as sources of information. About 70 percent of respondents considered that the government provided fairly or very useful and reliable sources of information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, social media was not considered an important news source by Finnish residents. Only 20 percent of the respondents considered that information found on social media platforms was important news sources.

According to Matikainen, merely 13 percent of the respondents claimed that discussing the virus on the internet or on social media is quite important for them.

The researcher was surprised about the strong confidence levels in authorities and traditional media, saying "the most surprising thing is that the role of the internet and social media is so low."

The material of the survey was collected in mid-May of 2020. A total of 1,354 people aged 18-79 responded to the survey.

According to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland has to date confirmed a total of 6,885 COVID-19 infections, of which 26 cases were new. The death toll rose to 318, while at least 5,500 people have recovered.