APA Communications staff continue to work with the news media to highlight the impact psychology can have on various aspects of the pandemic, including the effect of the pandemic on dreams and travel behavior in the future as well as what psychologists are doing to help the mental health of health care workers on the front line. In the past five weeks alone, APA Communications staff have:
- responded to at least 180 media requests and have sent story pitches to at least 100 more.
- tracked at least 2,600 articles featuring APA experts, reaching an estimated potential audience of more than 6.2 billion people.
APA media mentions of note since the coronavirus first appeared include:
- two articles in The Wall Street Journal
- five in The New York Times
- eight in The Washington Post
- five in USA Today
- at least seven articles on CNN.com
- two in Time
- two in The Atlantic
- two in U.S. News and World Report
- two articles on ABCNews.com
- two articles on NBCNews.com
- three on CNBC.com
- NPR (both online and broadcast by at least 145 stations)
APA Senior Director for Practice Research and Policy Lynn Bufka, PhD, and APA Director for Clinical Research and Quality Vaile Wright, PhD, were featured in the bulk of the coverage. To date, Bufka has appeared in at least 580 articles and Wright has appeared in at least 1,550.
APA's “Speaking of Psychology” podcast has also posted six special episodes on psychological issues associated with the pandemic, featuring APA fellows Baruch Fischhoff, PhD, and Bradley Klontz, PsyD, as well as Lynn Bufka, PhD, and Erin Westgate, PhD. The first episode was featured in an article on Business Insider, a website that reaches more than 8 million unique visitors each month. The podcast will continue to identify and produce relevant content as the pandemic continues. To date, these six podcasts have had more than 115,000 downloads combined.
APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, appeared on C-SPAN's “Washington Journal” liveopens in new window on Saturday, March 21, to answer questions about dealing with stress and coping with a variety of mental health issues associated with the pandemic. Evans also co-authored an op-ed in The Hill: Failure to address coronavirus mental health issues will prolong impactopens in new window.
Here are some samples of APA staff and member experts featured in the news:
How to help those weathering financial stormsopens in new window
The New York Times
The new normal is getting old fastopens in new window
The Washington Post
Give yourself an hour a day just to ‘freak' amid coronavirus pandemicopens in new window
CNBC
How to cultivate mental toughness in uncertain timesopens in new window
Forbes.com
It's OK to slow down: Why you don't have to optimize your coronavirus quarantineopens in new window
USA Today
Don't know what day it is today? There's a psychological reason whyopens in new window
USA Today
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