A little more than a year ago COVID-19 plagued our entire world. It seemed like a distant threat, especially since it hit the United States later than it hit other countries. I didn't even think it was that serious until Thursday, March 12th. That was my last day of senior year, my last day of high school, and my last day of public school forever. As the pandemic progressed, it gained considerable media coverage. You couldn't turn on the TV or look at your phone without seeing something about COVID-19. It was exhausting. 

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I know I'm not the only one who experienced this exhaustion. People all over the world were affected by this COVID-19 media surge, especially the false information that was spread around, gaining the name "infodemic." For this project I decided to ask the question: How has COVID-19 media coverage affected our mental health and perception of the virus? Turns out, there are multiple studies and research that have been done in the past year about this very issue. 

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These studies generated results about the fear people were experiencing about COVID-19 that was worsened by the media, and the effects of different types of media on people. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was almost constant media coverage about it. Nothing else seemed to matter. As time went on, it became slightly less prominent in media, but it is definitely still relevant. COVID-19 coverage also often became a political issue. Coverage of COVID-19 often varied depending on what political affiliation the media source leaned to. Still, almost all variations of COVID-19 media caused people distress and impacted their mental health.