Students Perception of Social Media Reportage on Covid-19 Pandemic
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to examine the perception of students covid-19 pandemic reportage. specifically, the specific objectives are:
1: To find out if media students are exposed to covid-19 pandemic reportage on social media.
2: To identify the social media platform they were exposed to on covid-19 pandemic reportage.
3: To investigate their views or impressions about reportage on social media.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
This chapter focuses on the review of pertinent literature concerning the public perception of social media reportage of COVID–19 pandemic. This chapter also looks at the theoretical framework of the study and its application to the study.
Review of Concepts
Social Media Defined
Social media has been defined by several authors. Fang, Hu, Li, & Tsai (2014) defined social media as computer and mobile-mediated tools that facilitate interaction and sharing of information in text, visual, audio and video forms in an online networking environment. Social media according to Bradley and McDonald (2011) is defined to include any Internet-based or mobile application that operates for the purpose of collaboration, which allows participants to connect, create, comment, view, share, rate, discover, profile, and exchange user-generated content. Social media, according to Suraweera, Razali, Chouhan, Tamang, Hubilla, Ratnayake and Mahesar (2010) is referred to a process of relationship building among a group with a common interest.
According to Rogers (2012), social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read, and share news, information, and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology that transforms monologue (one-to-many) into dialogue (many-to-many), and is the democratization of information that transforms people from content readers into publishers (Ganiyu & Oluwafemi, 2016).
Kruger & Painter (2011) described social media as a virtual information sharing space which promotes face-to-face interaction and relationships between individuals. A common position in all the definitions is that social media are online tools whose principal aim is to offer social interactions and exchange of items, ideas, products and services among people of common interests (Chitumbo & Chewe 2015). Social media operate in dialogic transmission where there may be many sources to many receivers of information, pictures, images and other resources. Examples of social media applications include the Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs, Wikis, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Flickr, Orkut among others.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes the research design, population of the study, sampling technique/sample, instrumentation as well as the validity and reliability of the instruments. It also states the method of data collection and method of analyzing the data collected.
Research Design
This research will employ the use of survey research design in the collection of data which is an excellent vehicle for measuring perception of the public in a large population. This is because the people’s opinions and perception on social media reportage of COVID – 19 pandemic will be sought through questionnaire.
Research design is the plan or blue print which specifies how data relating to a given problem should be collected and analyzed or the procedural outline for the conduct of any given investigation (Nworgu, 1991). It is also the researcher’s plan of action concerning the study, compressed into few paragraphs (Acholonu, 2012). Nichmas and Nichmas (1981) in their work on research methods in the social sciences defined research design as the program that guides the investigation in the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting observation.
It is a logical model of proof that allows the researcher to draw inferences concerning causal relations among the variables under investigation. It defines the domain of generalization to a large population or to different locations. Simply put, the research design is the hub on which a research is hinged upon. It is the general arrangement or the plan of the research intention (Madueme, 2010).
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
Media reportage of issues/events in the society is germane to the growth and perhaps development of the country. The issues of accurate, balanced, and objective reportage of issues especially that of health is necessary. With the recent covid-19 pandemic, the mass media reportage especially the social media has been alleged to dissemination of fake, false information, as students of media and communication studies is expected that are inherent with information on covid-19 pandemic and by extension seek to examine how we perceive the reportage of covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 pandemic is relatively current at present and students have been conducted on how students perceive it, this is the reason for the study to fill this gap with the aim to determine, the truth or false hood of the allegation of fake, false news reportage on covid-19 pandemic.
The broad objective of this study was to examine the perception of students covid-19 pandemic reportage. specifically, the specific objectives are:
1: To find out if media students are exposed to covid-19 pandemic reportage on social media.
2: To identify the social media platform they were exposed to on covid-19 pandemic reportage.
3: To investigate their views or impressions about reportage on social media.
The study discovered that respondents (students) were exposed to media reportage of coronavirus pandemic.
The study found out that during health emergency situation like the covid-19 pandemic which was occasioned by anxiety, tension, fear and uncertainty, residents depended more on the media to obtain information that can help reduce tension and fear.
It further found that social media was the main source of information for the students during the pandemic, also Facebook provided more information to them during the outbreak of the virus.
At the end they rated the performance of the social media platforms to be average during the pandemic.
Recommendations
Based on the foregoing, the study recommends the following:
- The social media should be objective, fair, honest and devoid of bias during health emergencies like covid-19 pandemic since a lot of media audience rely on them for health updates.
- Since the internet has altered information seeking behaviour of the audience in the 21st century, traditional media audience should upgrade to contemporary audience in order to access latest news on their social network platforms.
- News posted on the social media should be verified for it’s authenticity.
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