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Review
. 2022 Jan;52(1):16-25.
doi: 10.1111/mam.12261. Epub 2021 Jun 27.

COVID-19, media coverage of bats and related Web searches: a turning point for bat conservation?

Jacopo Cerri  1 , Emiliano Mori  2 , Leonardo Ancillotto  3 , Danilo Russo  3 , Sandro Bertolino  4
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19, media coverage of bats and related Web searches: a turning point for bat conservation?

Jacopo Cerri et al. Mamm Rev. 2022 Jan.

Abstract
in English, Spanish

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is genomically similar to a SARS-like beta-coronavirus found in Asian rhinolophid bats. This evolutionary relationship impressed the global media, which then emphasised bats as key actors in the spillover that resulted in the pandemic. In this study, we highlight changes in the traditional and new media coverage of bats and in Internet search volumes that occurred since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.We analysed Google and Wikipedia searches for bats and coronaviruses in 21 countries and eight languages, as well as television broadcasts in the USA, some of which have global coverage, between January 2016 and December 2020. In January 2020, the amount of television news about bats boomed, and news associated with the term 'bat' shifted to COVID-19-related topics. A nearly identical pattern was observed in Google searches during 2020 at the global scale. The daily time series of television coverage and Internet search volumes on bats and coronavirus in the USA covaried in the first quarter of 2020, in line with the existence of a media bubble. Time-series analysis revealed that both the Google Trends index and visits to Wikipedia pages about bats boomed in early 2020, despite the fact that this time of year is usually characterised by low search volumes.Media coverage emphasised, correctly or not, the role of bats in the COVID-19 pandemic and amplified public interest in bats worldwide. The public image of these mammals, in many cases threatened and important ecosystem service providers, was seriously compromised. We therefore recommend that policymakers and journalists prioritise scientifically accurate communication campaigns about bats, which would help counteract the surge in bat persecution, and leverage interest towards positive human-bat interactions.

SARS‐CoV‐2, el virus causante de la pandemia COVID‐19, es genómicamente símil al SARS‐tipo beta‐coronavirus encontrado en los murciélagos rinolófidos asiáticos. Esta relación evolutiva impresionó a los medios mundialmente, hasta tal punto que se ha enfatizado el papel de los murciélagos como uno de los principales vectores en la expansión de la pandemia. En este estudio, se resaltan los cambios producidos en la percepción de los murciélagos por los medios de comunicación (nuevos y tradicionales), y en las búsquedas en Internet que ocurrieron desde el inicio de la pandemia COVID‐19 en 2020.Para ello se han analizado las búsquedas del término ‘murciélago’ en Google y Wikipedia en 21 países y ocho lenguas, así como las retransmisiones televisivas en EE.UU. (algunas de las cuales con cobertura global) entre enero 2016 y diciembre 2020. En enero 2020, la cantidad de noticias televisadas sobre murciélagos se disparó, y el número de noticias previamente asociadas con el término ‘murciélago’ cambiaron por temáticas relacionadas con el COVID‐19. Un patrón idéntico puede ser observado a escala global en las búsquedas de Google durante el 2020. La serie temporal de cobertura televisiva y búsquedas en internet sobre murciélagos y coronavirus en EE.UU. covaría durante el primer cuarto del 2020, en líneo con la existencia de la burbuja mediática. El análisis de la cobertura diaria televisiva revela que tanto el índice Google Trend como las visitas a páginas de Wikipedia sobre murciélagos incrementaron al comienzo del 2020, a pesar de que esta época del año suele caracterizarse por bajos volúmenes de búsqueda.La cobertura mediática enfatizó, correctamente o no, el papel de los murciélagos en la propagación de la pandemia COVID‐19, ampliando el interés público a lo largo del globo. La imagen pública de estos mamíferos, en muchos casos especies amenazadas o proveedoras de importantes funciones ecosistémicas, ha sido seriamente comprometida. Por lo tanto, se recomienda a periodistas y responsables políticos la priorización de campañas de comunicación científicamente fundamentadas que ayuden a contrarrestar este aumento en la persecución de los murciélagos aprovechando el interés actual para concienciar al público de sus interacciones positivas con el hombre.

Keywords: COVID‐19; Google; SARS‐CoV‐2; Wikipedia; bats Chiroptera; conservation; television news.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Volume of news about bats in the years 2016 to 2021, on major television broadcasts in the USA, expressed as the GDELT Television News Archive index (further details can be found here: https://blog.gdeltproject.org/gdelt‐2‐0‐television‐api‐debuts/).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Word clouds for the years 2016 to 2020 representing keywords associated with news about bats on television broadcasts in the USA (top row), and representing topics of Google searches related to bats in 21 different countries (bottom row).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Daily time‐series of television news in the USA (top panel) and the Google Trends index (middle panel), and Wikipedia searches (bottom panel) about bats and coronavirus in the USA. Data were extracted for January to September 2020, the maximum time span for which daily Google Trends data could be obtained. The highlighted rectangular area represents the period, between late February and early June 2020, when the correlation between time series was maximised. Television news was measured with the GDELT Television News Archive index, Google searches with the Google Trends index, and Wikipedia searches as the number of visits. Each variable was rescaled between zero and 100, to facilitate comparisons between time series.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Temporal evolution in the years 2016 to 2021 of Google searches about bats, in 21 different countries, measured through the Google Trends index (upper panel), and as the number of aggregated visits to Wikipedia pages about bats in the main languages spoken in the 21 countries (lower panel). Google searches are expressed as weekly values of the Google Trends index (points in the upper panel). Points in the upper panel are scattered, as values of the Google Trends index cannot be aggregated across countries. Wikipedia visits are expressed as weekly visits to pages about bats per one million visits to Wikipedia in the same week (points in the lower panel). The shaded areas and solid lines represent fluctuations in Google and Wikipedia searches, summarised through our Bayesian generalised additive models: the shaded area represents the 95% credibility intervals, and the solid line represents predicted values from the model.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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