Impacts of Social Media during COVID-19
COVID-19 is a phenomenon of enormous magnitude and relevance. Its impact has affected various social domains, including the media and journalism. Since the beginning of this health crisis, the news has become a valuable resource for citizens. Research is done by the online surveys of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel in the United States, comparing data before and after the outbreak, to check the credibility given by citizen to the media and also their ability to detect fake news.The results confirm the impact of COVID-19 on the media system.
The findings suggest the emergence of important developments such as the resurgence of the role of legacy media, especially television, and the fact that citizens who usually remain far from the information have reconnected the news. Therefore, the existing inequalities regarding news consumption among citizens have been reduced, in part. This generates potential benefits for democracy in terms of equality and accessibility concerning public affairs.
The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has forced the governments to impose a lockdown, and many people have suddenly found themselves having to reduce their social relations drastically. Few investigation shows negative psychological effect of forced social isloution.
But the present investigation shows that there is more use of digital communication technologies for virtual meetings(i.e., voice and video calls, online board games and multiplayer video games, watching movies) during lockdown promoted social support, which itself mitigated the psychologicaleffect of lockdown. In result People get more connected to each other.
Another benefit of social media in COVID-19 is that it helped in reducing the spread of disease. Data collected in august 2020 (465) during lockdown imposed to reduced the spread of COVID. Result indicated that the amount of technologies used helps to reduce the effect of loneliness, anger and boredom because of social support. Also the positive role of digital technologies helps in maintaining meaningful social relationship during this extreme situation of lockdown.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has not only caused significant challenges for health systems all over the globe but also fueled the numerous rumors and misinformation, regarding the origin, outcomes, prevention, and cure of the disease. Such spread of misinformation is masking healthy behaviors and promoting wrong practices that increase the spread of the virus and ultimately result in poor physical and mental health outcomes among individuals. Many incidents of mishaps caused by these rumors have been reported globally.
To address this issue, the frontline healthcare providers should be equipped with the most recent research findings and accurate information. The mass media, healthcare organization, community-based organizations, and other important stakeholders should build strategic partnerships and launch common platforms for disseminating authentic public health messages. Also, advanced technologies like natural language processing or data mining approaches should be applied in the detection and removal of online content with no scientific basis from all social media platforms. Furthermore, these practices should be controlled with regulatory and law enforcement measures.
