The International Republican Institute (IRI) conducted a public opinion poll to find out the attitude of Armenians towards the coronavirus measures, health crisis and sources of information.

1517 Armenians took part in the poll, the poll was conducted over the phone. The data was collected between June 18-25.

64% of respondents said they were very concerned about the spread of the coronavirus and thought that they, their relatives and friends could be infected. 9% said they were not worried at all.

To the question “Why aren’t you worried that you or any family member will be infected with the coronavirus?,” 46% answered that they feel safe because they follow the epidemic rules, and 18% said that Covid-19- is a false infection and a conspiracy.

71% of respondents are very worried that the infection will hit the economy hard.

When asked about how government agencies are responding to the epidemic, the answer was that the police are working better (65%) and The Ministry of Health (64%), the Ministry of Economy (27%) has the worst score.

Both the Prime Minister and the Commandant are perceived more positively; the respondents are satisfied with their work. Despite the challenges of the crisis, the Armenian society trusts the Prime Minister (72% trust him a lot).

To the question, what are the effective sources of awareness on the days of the epidemic, the following answers were received.

• 65% – The Prime Minister’s posts and live videos on Facebook,
• 15% – awareness through loudspeakers in the streets,
• 13% – social media updates,
• 11% – social advertising (videos and outdoor posters).

Interestingly, only 2% of respondents mentioned the effectiveness of TV advertising.

However, television remains the primary source of information and political news (64%), followed by social media (62%).

But at the same time, television is mentioned as the primary information platform by people over the age of 50 (81%), and social media by young people aged 18-29 (83%).

The list of reliable media is as follows:

• Public Television (18%)
• Shant (16%)
• Armenia (12%)
• Azatutyun (RFE/RL) (9%)
• ArmNews (4%)

How often do you come across misleading information about the coronavirus in the media (also on social media)? This question also allows us to find out the skills of Armenians in analyzing media products.

Every day, said almost half of respondents – 48%.

Reliable sources include the Commandant (57%), the Ministry of Health (50%), friends and family (41%).

Russian media is considered very reliable by 14%, and Western international media by 8%. It is noteworthy at this point that more people read Russian sources than the international media; in this context (with reading more), a larger number of respondents (19%) consider the Russian media to be very unreliable.

50% say they do not use Western international media sources.

The poll also shows that Armenians are mostly satisfied with the work of the media.

32% are very satisfied, to some extent 29%, 16% are not completely satisfied.

Moreover, the higher the level of education of the respondents, the less level of satisfaction with the media coverage.

But in any case, the majority consider government officials and health professionals to be the most reliable sources of information about the infection.

Nune Hakhverdyan