When the coronavirus began spreading across the world, there was initially a veritable flood of news dealing exclusively with the pandemic. It was important to disseminate information about the new disease and measures to combat it. In this section, we examine how young people used and evaluated these news offerings.

Right at the beginning of the pandemic, young people intensively consumed news on this topic. The vast majority (nearly 80%) felt well or very well informed. Consequently, in the summer of 2020 when we carried out our survey, the majority of young people stated that they were able to understand and comply with the government’s measures to contain Covid-19. However, over time the amount of information became too much, and many young people then tried to protect themselves from it. They consumed less news and tried to focus on other things.