Sex, COVID-19 and the Media

Prof. Döring & R. Walter, M.A., publish in Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung

How is the COVID-19 pandemic changing our sexualities? This exciting question cannot be answered by science currently, because corresponding survey studies are mostly still ongoing. Nevertheless, since spring 2020, the media have been reporting quite extensively on sexuality-related consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

In their recent contribution in the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung (German Journal of Sex Research, Journal Impact Factor 0.698), Prof. Dr. Nicola Döring and R. Walter, M.A. (research group Media Psychology and Media Design at TU Ilmenau), analyze media narratives on COVID-19 and sex. Using a sample of N=305 mass media online articles, it was shown that in the German-speaking media public in spring 2020, strong changes in partnered sex and solo sex were assumed in some cases, as well as an intensification of known problems in the area of sexual and reproductive health. The examined media reports depicted the COVID-19 crisis predominantly as a risk to sexual well-being, but also partly saw the crisis as an opportunity. However, ambivalent narratives were rare.

Döring, N., & Walter, R. (2020). Wie verändert die COVID19-Pandemie unsere Sexualitäten? Eine Übersicht medialer Narrative im Frühjahr 2020. [How is the COVID-19 Pandemic Changing our Sexualities? An Overview of Media Narratives in Spring 2020] Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, 33(02), 65-75. Link to Open Access.