FACEBOOK USERS’ PERCEPTION OF BIG TECH TAGGED COVID-19 PUBLICITY
Abstract
This study examined on Facebook users’ perception of big tech tagged Covid-19 publicity. Three research questions guided the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The multi stage sampling technique was adopted in selecting 400 students from a population of 22,912 undergraduate Facebook users in South Eastern Nigeria universities. The results showed that the Facebook users’ perception of big tech tagged links to Covid-19 mainstream and official websites include among others that it increases knowledge about Covid-19, increases information seeking behaviour and incites and motivates preventive health behaviour. Facebook users also hold the perception that Big Tech tagged Covid-19 information sharing reduces information sharing about Covid-19 among Facebook users and decreased the sharing of Covid-19 messages not flagged by Facebook as correct. Facebook users also hold the view that big tech tagged Covid-19 vaccines, local remedies and variant species helps to affirm the authenticity of vaccines, incite the idea that local remedies and concoctions are not trust-worthy and demystifies the information about the potential harmful effects of vaccine in circulation. It can be concluded from the findings that Facebook users have varied perceptions of big tech tagged Covid-19 publicity. It was therefore, recommended that Facebook should create a plug-in application that enables Facebook users to automatically receive newly tagged Covid-19 publicity alerts in a customizable way.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Alanezi, A., & AlAzwani, C. (2020). Future of mobile learning during and after global (Covid-19) pandemic: College of basic education as case. Journal of Education and Practice, 11- 17.
Al-Zaman, S. (2021). Social media and COVID-19 misinformation: how ignorant Facebook users are? Heliyon, 7, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07144
Baldwin, A.N. (2020, March, 02) How novel coronavirus compares to SARS, MERS and other recent viral outbreaks. ABCnews. https:// abcnews.go.com/US/coronavirus-compares-sars-mersrecent-viral-outbreaks/story?id=6932936 on 22 September 2020.
Baran, S., & Davis, B. (2012). Mass media theory (6th ed.). Wadsworth Centage.
BBC–British Broadcasting Corporation. (2020, March 21). Coronavirus: Italian wey first test positive for COVID-19 inside Nigeria don discharge from Lagos Isolation ward. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-51986476 on June 28, 2021
Bell, K. (2020). Facebook will show pop-ups before you share articles about Covid-19. Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/Facebook-pop-up-warnings-coronavirus-articles-200556011.html
Chen, K., Luo, Y., Hu, A., Zhao, J., & Zhang, L. (2021, May 10). Characteristics of misinformation spreading on social media during the Covid-19 outbreak in China: A Descriptive analysis. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 14, 1869–1879. https://doi. org/10.2147/RMHP.S312327
Ehondor, B., & Unakalamba, C. (2021). Social media for crisis communication in the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak: A study of NCDC. Journal of Media Research, 14(2), 46-69. https://Doi: 10.24193/jmr.40.3
Hutchinson, A. (2020). Facebook adds new informational prompt when users share Covid-19 related content. Social media today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Facebook-adds-new-informational-prompt-when-users-share-Covid-19-related-co/583416/
Islam, T., Mahmood, K., & Sadiq, M. (2020). understanding knowledgeable workers’ behaviour toward Covid-19 information sharing through whatsapp in Pakistan. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 572-596.
Malik, A., Khalid, M., & Islam, T. (2021). Understanding the Facebook users’ behaviour towards Covid-19 information sharing by integrating the theory of planned behaviour and gratifications. Information Development, 1-14. https://doi: 10.1177/02666669211049383
Nestour, A., Moscoviz, L., & Mbaye, S. (2020). Phone survey on the Covid crisis in Senegal. Dataverse. https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/9XE95F/95R W9C&version=3.0
Nicola, M., Alsafi, Z., & Sohrabi, C. (2020). The socioeconomic implications of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review. International Journal of Surgery, 78, 185–193.
Nwabueze, C., & Okonkwo, E. (2018). Rethinking the bullet theory in the digital age. International Journal of Media, Journalism and Mass Communications (IJMJMC), 4(2), 1-10. Doi:http://dx.doi.org/10. 20431/2455-0043.0402001
Nworgu, B.G. (2015). Educational research; Basic issues & methodology. Trust Publishers.
Ovide, S. (2021). What the fight over Facebook misses. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/technology/biden-Facebook-coronavirus.html
Pan American Health Organisation. (2020). Understanding the infodemic and misinformation in the fight against Covid-19. Iris. https://iris.paho.org/bitstream/ handle/10665.2/52052/Factsheetinfodemic_eng.pdf?sequence=14#:~:text=infodemic%3A%20an%20overabundance%20of%20information,increase%20in%20the%20volume%20 of:PAHO&WHO.
Prensky, M. (2021). Digital natives, digital immigrants from on the horizon. MCB University Press, 9(5), 1-6.
Toquero, C. M. (2020). Challenges and opportunities for higher education amid the COVID-19 pandemic: The Philippine context. Pedagogical Research, 5(4), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7947
Tran, T., Valecha, R., & Rad, P. &. (2020). An investigation of misinformation harms related to social media during two humanitarian crises. Information Systems Frontiers, 7(11), 23-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-020-10088-3
UNICEF (2020). COVID-19 and its implications for protecting children online. Inee. https://inee.org/system/files/resources/COVID-19%20and%20Its%20Implications%20for%20Protecting%20Children%20Online.pdf
Wadsworth CentageSohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O’neill N, et al. (2020) World health organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). International Journal of Surgery, 76, 71–76.
WHO (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports. WHO. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports.
WHO (2020, March11). WHO director-general's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 11 March 2020. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-Covid-19---11-march-2020
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
ISSN: 3026-9407 (Online)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.