1 Introduction

Ever since January 2020, when Covid-19 first emerged in China, its threats to health and social life, and the individual and collective measures to contain it, have dominated the media at the national and global level. The relationship between the media and the pandemic can be approached from multiple perspectives (Price and Harbisher, 2022). The first consists of studying discussion of the pandemic on mainstream media and social networks. Yu et al. (2021) studied 10,132 online comments related to Covid-19 on the TripAdvisor platform from January 1 to February 29, 2020. They show that the rapid and unpredictable spread of the disease drove a dynamic change in communication on social media regarding risk perception and the intensity of communication experienced by those who commented. Wicke and Bolognesi (2020) analyze concepts and discussions on Twitter regarding Covid-19 in March and April 2020 and the use of war-related terminology in framing the discourse on specific topics, such as the treatment of those who fell ill with the disease. Balech et al. (2021) construct a “microhistory” of reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic by French users on Twitter between February and May 2020, finding that masks emerged as a central topic of discourse and controversy in France.

The second perspective concerns the relationship between media consumption and mental health. On the one hand, researchers emphasize the role of crisis-related media exposure in amplifying the public health consequences of Covid-19 (Garfin et al., 2020). Following this approach, scholars examine the relationship between Covid-19–related media and a deterioration in mental health. Schmidt et al. (2021) describe a feedback loop in which consuming crisis-related media and worrying have a reciprocal impact over time, as each feeds the other and might amplify the adverse effects of the crisis and other similar crises on mental and physical health. First et al. (2021) show that Covid-19 coverage in the media (traditional and social) and interpersonal communication have a direct effect on stress and an indirect effect on stress and depression. In a study of over 1,118 Chinese in 30 provinces in mainland China, Liu and Liu (2020) show that four types of media (official media, commercial media, social media, and overseas media) have negative effects on their audiences to different degrees. Based on a cross-sectional telephone survey conducted in Hong Kong between May and August 2020, Wong et al. (2021) find that, among 3,421 adults age sixty and older, the use of social media to obtain information related to Covid-19 is associated with more symptoms of anxiety and lower social trust in information but has no significant relationship to Covid-safe behavior. Along the same lines, by reversing the relationship and focusing on Chinese college students from March 24 to April 1, 2020, Zhao and Zhou (2021) show that Covid-19 stress is positively related to a tendency toward addictive use of social media. People who experience more Covid-19–related stress are at increased risk of addictive use of social media, which in turn may be fostered by active use and experience.

Moreover, studies have shown that the media coverage of the pandemic, particularly in the first few months, which discussed the disease with a racial lens and reported multiple racist incidents related to Covid-19 that were directed at Asians, may have presented a significant risk to the mental health of people of Asian origin. In fact, many people of Asian origin started to realize that they could be accused of spreading the disease and that, for this reason, they could become stigmatized and targets of racism (Wu et al., 2021). Similarly, using a cross-sectional study of 430 US adults completed in May 2020, Tsai, Phua, Pan, and Yang (2020) investigate the relationship among news consumption, trust, intergroup contact, and prejudicial attitudes toward Asians and Asian Americans in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic. They show that, among other factors, traditional news exposure, and trust in social media were positive predictors of prejudice against Asians and Asian Americans. Tsai et al. also state that the Asian population’s experience with racial prejudice during a challenging pandemic might have caused poor psychological outcomes and exacerbated health disparities.

Emerging research also examines how media coverage of disease (in particular, Covid-19) and media consumption might influence people’s health behavior and their compliance with preventive measures. In a study carried out in the United States, Nazione, Perrault, and Pace (2021) analyze the relationship between mediated and interpersonal information consumption, risk perception, perceptions of general efficacy, and preventive behaviors specific to Covid-19.¹ Nazione et al. show that the time spent consuming news, social media, and health website information is not related to risk perception, whereas perceived risk and perceived general efficacy are positively associated with preventive behavior.

Focusing on the opportunities for health education using digital media, Liu (2020) tests the links between four types of digital media consumption (social media, mobile social networking apps, online news media, and social livestreaming services) and preventive behavior against infection with Covid-19. Liu states that digital media consumption is related to preventive behavior through stress. Based on an online survey with 511 respondents, Liu finds that, by seeking Covid-19 information through these four types of digital media, people are encouraged to engage in preventive behavior either directly or indirectly. Notably, doing so on mobile social networking apps, social livestreaming services, and online news media is directly related to preventive behavior whereas using social media might elicit intense anxiety and, in turn, increase preventive behaviors.

Using data from a representative sample of people in the US, Jiang et al. (2020) analyze the relationship between attention to news media and social-distancing behavior and three potential mediators in this relationship: (1) perceived effectiveness of social distancing, (2) perceived susceptibility to Covid-19 infection, and (3) perceived negative consequences of infection. Jiang et al. find that attention to news media is positively related to social-distancing behavior during this period and is mediated by the perceived effectiveness of social distancing. Conversely, media trust negatively moderates the impact of news attention on the perceived effectiveness of social distancing, with a more pronounced effect on those who have lower trust in media. Overall, the study finds that, when they emphasize safety measures, news media have an important role in promoting social-distancing behavior. In a study focused on Lebanon, Melki et al. (2021) show that increased exposure to media conveying Covid-19 news is positively related to people’s compliance with preventive measures and that perceived knowledge and fear mediate this relationship.

In sum, these studies on media consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic illustrate a wide range of approaches. They show that the treatment of Covid-19 in official media and social media varies greatly over time and across sociopolitical contexts. Moreover, these studies suggest that media consumption during Covid-19 might affect individual mental well-being, fuel the feeling of racial stigma, influence the adoption of protective behaviors and practices, and support the successful implementation of national and international policies to control the spread of the virus. We note that these studies examine official media and social media as mediators and vectors of information. But they examine the impact of the media regardless of the nature and content of the information mediated through that vector, paying little attention to the messages and representations being mediated. We believe that the impact of media and social media on individual and collective experiences is strongly related to the content of messages and the type of representations disseminated through different kinds of media and social media. Indeed, different groups in the same national context could have access to very different representations of social reality and historical conditions in relation to their media consumption practices.

In this chapter, we examine media consumption by the Chinese population in France. In particular, we analyze the differences in media consumption among different groups of Chinese in France based on their migratory status—that is, whether they are migrants or descendants of migrants and subgroups therein. We show that different subgroups of the Chinese diaspora in France might have access to different representations of the Covid-19 pandemic, based on their consumption of different media. Furthermore, these differential representations of the disease influence their experiences and their behaviors.

Our analysis builds on the fact that, as mentioned in the introduction to this book, from January to September 2020, the French and Chinese media described the pandemic and the institutional and individual measures needed to counter it in very different ways. Moreover, the institutional reactions at both the political and medical levels in the two social contexts were profoundly different. Since January 2020, the Chinese media had described the coronavirus as extremely dangerous and supported the implementation of strict control measures. Although these measures strongly limit individual freedom, they were necessary to limit the spread of the virus. In parallel with collective measures to limit viral spread, the Chinese government and media quickly and strongly encouraged the population to take individual measures, such as self-isolation and wearing masks. In France, between January and September 2020, in a context characterized by a relative lack of knowledge of the virus and the absence of a scientific consensus on its characteristics and severity, the media featured a variety of voices, expressing conflicting opinions and positions on both the severity of the disease and the need for collective measures to contain it. We believe that the experience and perceptions of individuals about the pandemic and, consequently, the protective practices adopted to avoid infection are affected by whether access to media narratives circulating in China, France, or China and France are singular or plural as well as by the ability to navigate between the Chinese and French media contexts, individual migration trajectories, and sociodemographic factors (age, gender, education, etc.).

We examine two main aspects of media consumption: on the one hand, we study media exposure in terms of the variety of media sources to which individuals have access; on the other hand, we study the polarization of media consumption between French and Chinese information sources. Subsequently, we examine how media exposure affects the polarization of media consumption. Because the Chinese population in France is heterogeneous, we explore divergence in media consumption among different groups, defined by their migration trajectory. More specifically, we are interested in the differences in the media consumption practices across descendants of Chinese migrants, nonnaturalized migrants, and naturalized French migrants. We then study the differential impacts of the pandemic on media consumption practices among these three groups in terms of time spent on seeking information on the pandemic and satisfaction with that information. Finally, we show that because of their differential media consumption, different groups in the Chinese diaspora in France have access to different and contradictory representations of the disease and of the measures needed to counter it, leading to differential attitudes regarding the risk of infection, differential behaviors, and differential experiences.

The originality of our contribution is its interest in media consumption practices and the relationship between those practices and the pandemic by a specific population. Indeed, media consumption practices by the Chinese population in France has been little studied. Moreover, this work is novel because of it studies media consumption practices based on groups defined by their migratory trajectory and in relation to social changes caused by the pandemic. Moreover, we show that, the Chinese people living in France, though residing in the same spatial territory, have access to different narratives and representation of the Covid-19 pandemic through differential media consumption, which deeply affects their experiences and attitudes toward the virus and the measures needed to deal with it.

2 Variables

3 Media Consumption, Media Satisfaction, and Time Spent Seeking Information

3.2 Time Spent on Information and Satisfaction with Covid-19 Information

In this section, we examine the differential impacts of the pandemic on media consumption practices by the Chinese population in France in terms of time spent on staying informed and satisfaction with information about the pandemic.

Figure 1.2 illustrates respondents’ answers to questions about the level of satisfaction with information about Covid-19 (left) and evolution in the time spent on obtaining information about the Covid-19 pandemic (right). Overall, the patterns concerning satisfaction with information are quite similar across the three groups: the majority of respondents indicated that they are “Somewhat satisfied”: 51 percent of the descendants, 45.7 percent of the naturalized migrants, and 58.8 percent of the nonnaturalized migrants. Divergence emerges in the extreme answers: descendants seem to be more dissatisfied (10.2%) than migrants, both naturalized (2.8%) and nonnaturalized (3.3%). In contrast, migrants are more likely to be satisfied with the information (naturalized migrants, 22.8%, and nonnaturalized migrants, 15.3%) than descendants (10.2%). With respect to evolution in the time spent on obtaining information, the majority of respondents in all three groups say that they increased the time spent on obtaining information. However, two different patterns can be distinguished. On the one hand, migrants have largely increased the time spent on obtaining information (74.2% of the naturalized migrants and 77.7% of the nonnaturalized migrants), and only a small share claim that they have not changed their time spent on obtaining information (14.2% of the naturalized migrants and 16.2% of the nonnaturalized migrants) or have decreased it (11.4% and 6.2%, respectively). But, among the descendants, a more nuanced pattern emerges: although a small majority claims to have increased the time spent on obtaining information, a large share (31.3%) says that the time spent on obtaining information remained the same, and 30.6 percent claims that it declined.

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Scatterplot showing the relation between the polarization of media consumption (x axis) and the variety of media consumption across three groups defined by their migratory status (Descendants, Nonnaturalized Migrants, Naturalized Migrants)

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Bar plots showing the level of satisfaction with Covid-19 information (left) and the evolution of the time spent on information about the Covid-19 pandemic (right) among the respondents of the questionnaire

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In order to gain more insights, we performed a logistic regression analysis in which we examine the effect of migratory status, sex, age and education, media exposure, polarization of media consumption on (1) evolution in the time spent on obtaining information during the pandemic and (2) satisfaction with information about Covid-19 during this period. Figures 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 illustrate the results of an ordinal logistic regression representing the relative risks—that is, the ratio of the probability of choosing one outcome category over the probability of choosing the baseline category.

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The effect of migratory status, sex, education, age, media exposure, and polarization of media consumption on the evolution of time spent on information about the Covid-19 pandemic

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The effect of migratory status, sex, education, and age on the level of satisfaction with the information about the Covid-19 pandemic

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The effect of migratory status, sex, education, age, media exposure, and polarization of media consumption on the level of satisfaction with the information about the Covid-19 pandemic

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Model 1 shows that migrants, both naturalized and nonnaturalized, were more likely than descendants to increase the time spent on obtaining information: that is, the relative risk ratio for switching from “decreased” to “increased” is 4.62 for naturalized migrants vs. descendants and 7.99 for nonnaturalized migrants vs. descendants. Age, sex, education, polarization of media consumption, and media exposure have no significant effect on evolution in the time spent on obtaining information.

Model 2 shows that, when controlling for sex, education, and age, migrants, especially nonnaturalized migrants, were more likely than descendants to say they were “satisfied” and “somewhat satisfied” rather than “dissatisfied.” That is, the relative risk ratios for switching from “not at all satisfied” to “somewhat satisfied” and “satisfied” are, respectively, 3.84 and 4.73 for nonnaturalized migrants vs. descendants and 4.14 and 9.44 for naturalized migrants vs. descendants. These trends are confirmed after polarization in media consumption and media exposure are added to the model. Moreover, media exposure appears to have a positive impact on an increase in the level of satisfaction. The relative risk ratio for a one-percentage-point increase in media exposure is 1.84 for being “somewhat dissatisfied” vs. “not at all satisfied” and 1.76 for being “somewhat satisfied” vs. “not at all satisfied.” The statistical analysis suggests that migrants are more satisfied than descendants with information about the Covid-19 and that the fact that they have access to multiple sources of information contributes to an increase in their level of satisfaction with information.

The ethnographic interviews provide some possible explanations of these trends. Migrants, especially highly educated migrants, feel the need to learn about the evolution in the pandemic in both China and France. This was particularly true during the first months of the pandemic, between January and May 2020. This need was often triggered by a feeling that the disease was very serious. In addition, they were greatly concerned about the physical and psychological well-being of relatives, friends, and loved ones in China and, as the pandemic spread to France, their own well-being. In January, China became the epicenter of the pandemic and the focus of international media attention. In this context, in January 2020, migrants, especially highly educated migrants, needed to learn about evolution in the pandemic in China using both Chinese and French sources.

Based on their statements, at least three factors drove migrants to seek more information. First, during the first weeks of January 2020, information was “hazy,” incomplete. and contradictory. Second, the Chinese government, Chinese media, and relatives in China described the disease as extremely dangerous and advocate very strict protective measures at the collective and individual level: this created concern over the physical and psychological well-being of relatives, friends, and loved ones in China. Third, the migrants perceived significant discrepancies between the statements about the danger of the disease and its evolution by Chinese and French authorities and the measures taken by the Chinese and French authorities to counter it. Thus, the lack of accuracy in information, the feeling of danger and concern about the well-being of relatives, and the perceived discrepancies between the respective postures by the Chinese and French authorities drove migrants to seek more information, to widen their media sources (French, Chinese, and other), and to compare them. This led to an increase in the amount of time spent on obtaining information. Bing, a thirty-year-old doctoral student in sociology, describes this period:

In fact, the information at the first stage [of the pandemic] was very vague; so, I mostly looked at official websites. … Afterward, I mainly followed the Chinese health strategies, saying that “you have to put on masks” and “if it’s not necessary, don’t go out.” I completely accepted that and practiced it in France. I looked at both French and Chinese newspapers and I took an average look, not a neutral one, by which I mean that when I look at positive news on the Chinese websites, I say to myself, “maybe [the situation is] not that positive, but when I look at the French critics of China and the discussions, notably, I look at Le Monde and Le Figaro, I say to myself, maybe [conditions are] not that bad. The two sources of information are both a bit too extreme. … At that time, in January 2020, I was reading a lot of Chinese news to try to understand what this virus is; at that time, the French were demonstrating and going on strike; when I found out about the demonstrations, I was very worried because it’s like being in a restaurant, with proximity, shouting, and common gestures that would help spread the virus. And to find out about the [current] situation, I watch the local news, for example, FranceInfo or France 24, BFMTV, … and also Le Monde or Le Figaro. … I also get some distance and look at the news from mainland China from Taiwanese news to compare [them] because generally they say the opposite, so I will look for the differences. And it’s important to analyze. I think it’s the Taiwanese press that has used the term “Wuhan virus” most in the world.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN FRENCH, JANUARY 2021

Bing’s experience leads us to consider a fourth factor that contributes to the increase in time that migrants spent on obtaining information. This factor is strongly related to the second phase of the pandemic outbreak. In February, Covid-19 began to spread in Europe, particularly in France. At that time, in addition to concern about the health of relatives in China, migrants were also concerned about their own health: they started to look for information about what was going on around them in France, in particular, the French government’s management of the health crisis and preventing the virus from spreading.

In their search for information, migrants, especially well-educated migrants, tap a wide range of information sources. They believe that, in France, they can easily find the information that they are looking for. They can read a variety of newspapers or specialized magazines in different languages, watch French or foreign television channels, listen to the radio or podcasts, search online using the main search engines. Thus they have the impression that they can easily access information, compare various sources, sort out relevant information, and summarize it themselves. This is particularly true when they search for information about the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. The high level of satisfaction with information that migrants express is related not only to the quality of the information per se but to the potential to access and compare several sources. Jianhe, a thirty-three-year-old nonnaturalized migrant and PhD student in sociology, describes the accessibility to information as follows:

Well, it’s not difficult to find [the right information]. … I use two [mobile] apps a lot—for Le Monde and Le Figaro. And [I receive] a lot of messages [that I read] every day. If I want to get more information, or more targeted information, I just open Google and do a direct search, and I can get the information I need.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN CHINESE, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

In short, migrants who lack proficiency in French and those with little cultural capital cannot navigate the various media sources in different languages, this does not mean that they do not screen the media sources that they access. Mr. He, a retired employee in the catering sector, said:

Some information is too upsetting and hard to take. For example, a girl in Italy decided to commit suicide in front of her mother. This type of story makes me sad for a long time, so I avoid it; in other words, I choose which information I want to access.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN CANTONESE, JULY 2020

A sixty-five-year-old interviewee, Ms. Zhang, who had retired from a job at a national firm in China and had traveled to France for a family visit but was stranded there because of Covid-19, does not speak French or English. During her stay in France (in 2020), almost the only way she could become informed was through WeChat.

There is no TV at my daughter’s house. Of course, we exchange information on Covid-19 with her that is in different languages and from different sources. But on my own, I can only obtain information through WeChat. I found some differences in the way that Covid-19 conditions are reported by different news sources: on the one hand, by Chinese media sources located in China and, on the other hand, by Chinese-language media outlets run by Chinese people in France. The first one conveys the Chinese government’s ideas, and the second one translates the French government’s plans into Chinese and disseminates the Chinese news from China. At the beginning of the pandemic [January and February 2020] I only followed Chinese media based in China on the pandemic conditions. But it made me too stressed, and I couldn’t fall asleep at night. Later, my daughter told me about this second type of Chinese media, based in France. The information about the pandemic is presented a little less dramatically, and when I read it, I feel less stressed.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN CHINESE, OCTOBER 2020

Ms. Zhang’s description highlights the nuances in the media posture by different sources of news even in Chinese. Based on the geographic source of media, the national context in which the media is embedded affects how the content is produced and how the Covid-19 pandemic is depicted. And all these elements undoubtedly influence the representation of the pandemic described and internalized by individuals (see below, section 4).

The descendants’ stance seems to be more ambivalent. Indeed, 30 percent of the descendants said they had reduced the time spent on obtaining information. Moreover, although the majority of descendants responded that they are “rather satisfied” or “satisfied” with the information on Covid-19, they are less satisfied than migrants, and 10 percent said they are “not at all satisfied.”

Our interviews highlight two factors that explain the dissatisfaction of some descendants. First, the many views and actors in the French media can present contradictory information and create some cacophony. Because of that context, some respondents said that they feel “lost” and “frustrated” and have lost trust in the messages transmitted and those transmitting them. Second, some respondents denounced the ethnic and racist comments about populations of Chinese origin that appeared in some French media, especially during the first phase of the pandemic, when the disease was strongly associated with Asian ethnicity. Camille, a student who is a twenty-three-year-old descendant, explains why she reduced her media consumption:

My media consumption decreased during Covid, because of some of the comments. … Sometimes, I has nightmares about reading the comments in some publications, and then I start going crazy. … And even the media coverage was unbearable. It was not informative, … it made me tired. … But the way that China was treated by the Western media, in my opinion, is very marked by a certain orientalism, by something that is “otherizing,” … [as if Chinese people form] a “shapeless mass,” … “they are numerous, it’s their fault,” as if they are people who are not individuals.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN FRENCH, NOVEMBER 4, 2020

4 Access to Different Representations and Narratives on Covid-19

In this section, we show that the differential tendencies in the media consumption of different groups lead to various representations of Covid-19 and the measures needed to deal with it by delivering very different narratives.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the strong polarization in media consumption toward French sources and the partial and indirect access to Chinese information (due to a lack of Chinese-language skills) mediated by parents or family members put the descendants in a position in-between theme. On the one hand, information from Chinese media and, on the other hand, information from French media. This intermediary position enables them to take a critical attitude toward the information that they obtain. But, at the same time, it exposes them to contradictory information: the Chinese media deliver strong indications of the severity of the disease and urgent demands for compliance with protective measures, whereas the French media present more flexible attitudes and temporize about the gravity of the disease.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Amanda, like a majority of the descendants interviewed, was not worried about Covid-19; indeed, French media delivered rather reassuring messages. Still, she began to be careful after talking to her grandmother in Cambodia on WeChat, because she gained access to Chinese information that was constantly conveying messages of danger and the need for vigilance. Amanda is aware of the differences in the political and media narratives about the Covid-19 pandemic between the French and Chinese contexts, and she feels like she is “in between.” She is also aware that these narratives deeply affect the attitudes and behaviors of her relatives and friends in France and China. Although she is suspicious of information from China, she starts to maintain some distance from information from France. This ambivalence between French and Chinese information can create tension and conflict, which are expressed with her family or among friends. These conflicts unfold with her family regarding the concerns and highly protective attitudes (e.g., total elimination of going out before the lockdown by the French government) by parents and the more relaxed attitude about protective measures and greater carefreeness by their children. In the friendship or work context, these conflicts are expressed in terms of vigilance by the descendants and the complete carelessness and lack of protective measures by their French friends or colleagues. Thus the descendants hear different and in some ways contradictory narratives about Covid-19 and the measures needed to address it. Compared to consistent messages on Covid-19 presented by Chinese media, the many contradictory positions aired on French media might produce a sense of confusion.

Awareness of discrepancies in the media narratives between the French and Chinese contexts is also demonstrated by the experience of highly educated migrants. After January 2020, they were quickly struck by the outbreak of the pandemic in China and by the narratives produced and disseminated through Chinese media and social media. Chinese media reported the lockdown of the Hebei region, the mobilization of thousands of doctors and nurses, the construction of new hospitals, and described the virus as extremely dangerous, encouraging the population to take protective measures immediately. Moreover, among the migrants, the Covid-19 outbreak recalled painful experiences with the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pandemic in 2002 and the strict protective measures (at the individual and collective level) employed to counter it. In addition, in conversing with their families and relatives in China, migrants heard about concern over the virus from their parents and friends. After January, migrants began to worry about the virus and expressed concern about the physical health of their parents and friends in China and the possible spread of the virus in France.

Zhe believes that, by describing the virus as extremely dangerous to people’s health, Chinese official media and social media played a crucial role in the increase in stress and anxiety by migrants. The narratives and the descriptions spread by Chinese media (both official and social media) drove Zhe to change his behavior and attitudes and to take strict protective measures, such as asking his wife to stop working and isolating themselves at home very early on, starting “about February 29,” three weeks before the national lockdown in France.

What I want to say is that Chinese media only spreads fear through terrifying reports, such as the young man who fell to the ground and died. … I am an example of this myself: at first, I was really afraid even to go out. … [or] to touch anything because I believed that I would get infected—after all, I have a wife and children at home.

Zhe has access to both French and Chinese media (and other international media) and can compare the information from both of them. Based on this comparison, his own representations of the disease changed, from being a deadly disease to one that, while serious, is somewhat less dangerous.

Like Zhe, many educated migrants compared sources from different contexts. This enabled them to look at the information with some mental distance to construct their own views about the disease and its dangers. As mentioned earlier, the ability to access information from multiple national contexts selectively helps them to feel satisfied about the information they obtain but, at the same time, increases the time spent in pursuing this information.

Amanda describes the influence of media consumption practices on the attitudes of her migrant parents: her mother, who only accesses Chinese information, takes very strict measures, whereas her father, by listening to French news, downplays the severity of the disease as described by the Chinese media and allows himself to engage in more flexible protection measures.

As mentioned in Chapter 6, the majority of the elderly people interviewed criticize how the French government is handling the pandemic. Some Chinese nationalist discourses emerge in the WeChat group by older people who are nostalgic for the Maoist period. Obviously, when these elderly people talk to their children and grandchildren, they feel out of step with them, as illustrated by Amanda’s comments. These discrepancies are largely fueled by the divergent in their media consumption in terms of the source and language. In Chapter 2, we analyze the discrepancies between different groups of Chinese living in France, and how these discrepancies translate into different attitudes and protective measures, in more detail.

5 Conclusion

Many studies have examined the impact of media consumption on collective and individual behavior across various groups defined by their demographics and their cultural origins during the Covid-19 pandemic. Researchers have looked at how different media (official media or social media) influence (or not) the adoption of protective measures at both the individual and collective level, affect individual mental health, fuel the feeling of racial stigma, and support the successful implementation of national and international policies to control the spread of the virus. A majority of these studies focus on the different types of media, but they give less attention to the content being broadcast. Our study examines the effect of multilingual media originating in different national and transnational settings on the behavior of Chinese people living in France by describing their different representations of the Covid-19 disease. Because the Chinese and French representations of the Covid-19 pandemic have been so different, we believe that the differential access to information, which is socially constructed in the two national contexts, heavily affects not only the perception of Covid-19 disease by the Chinese diaspora but also the preventive measures adopted (see Chapter 2).

By analyzing different media consumption practices by the population in France of Chinese origin, we highlight the differences between migrants and descendants in terms of polarization in media consumption and exposure. We find that descendants have highly polarized media consumption with a preference for French information, and that migrants, in particular those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, consume a larger variety of media. We also show that highly educated migrants, who consume more media sources, tend to consume more media from French sources and continually compare French and Chinese sources. During the pandemic, they have strongly increased their media consumption and are more satisfied than the descendants with information about Covid-19. Finally, we show that migrants whose media consumption is highly polarized, with a preference for French information, are less likely to take protective measures, because of the France views of the disease that present it as not very dangerous or as dangerous only for vulnerable populations. But descendants who consume Chinese sources in addition to the many French sources have a strong tendency to engage in protective measure. Furthermore, they put the information obtained from French media sources into perspective by comparing it with the information from Chinese media sources.