Social Media Responsibility towards COVID 19 News: The Case of Qatar

Ashraf  Galal; Philip J.  Auter

doi:10.35516/hum.v50i5.180

Authors

Ashraf Galal Broadcasting Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6599-899X
Philip J. Auter Department of Communication, University, of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v50i5.180

Keywords:

Social media, Media responsibility, COVID 19, Fake news, Infodemic, Media credibility, Media dependency

Abstract

Objectives: This study explored to what extent people in one nation in the Middle East, Qatar, used social media to obtain information regarding COVID-19. It also looked at how social media organizations review and attempt to verify posted information and what they do when and if they discover fake news

Methods: The researchers surveyed 400 Qatari citizens to determine their perceptions of the credibility of government and private social media sites and how that differed from their perception of the credibility of traditional mass media news outlets.The research also addressed the interrelationship between browsing social media for information and disinformation about COVID-19 and a person’s feelings of threat, anxiety, and fear.

Results: The study found that social media users may have difficulty telling the difference between information and disinformation. This can increasetheir fear, anxiety, and stress. This relationship appears to be clear, and cuts across all demographic lines. What is unclear is whether fear drives people to increase their social media searching for COVID-19 information, or if increased consumption increases fear? It’s quite possible that it is a circular relationship.

Conclusions: The study recommended that interventions from multiple stakeholders are essential in order to rationale social media performance and harness it’s power to disseminate reliable information.

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