University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Study shows news coverage on Twitter combined crime, pandemic in disjointed narrative. “New research from Husker sociologist Lisa Kort-Butler suggests that in the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, from the initial shutdowns, several waves of heightened disease and death and a waning sense of emergency, legacy news organizations continued to elevate crime news through Twitter, but often partnered the pandemic and crime in disjointed ways, and incorporated similar language with both. These crime and pandemic snapshots — in 280 characters or less — likely magnified a sense of instability and insecurity of Americans.”