Masks are ubiquitous today in daily life across the world. Yet interestingly, that prevalence is not reflected in online news imagery. The timeline below shows the percentage of worldwide online news images monitored by the GDELT Project thus far this year that contained an image of a person wearing a mask, showing a steady rise from mid-Feb through a peak on April 4, before a sharp drop off through April 9, a steady slow decline through June and constant levels through present that are largely the same as they were pre-pandemic.
Online News Imagery Of Masks Faded in Early April
