TACKLING SOCIAL MEDIA AND COVID-19 ISSUES IN NIGERIA: THE CASE OF FAKE NEWS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

Njideka Patience Ezeonyejiaku, Ifeyinwa Maureen Nwanolue, Chinwe Rebecca Okoyeocha

Abstract


The emergence of social media which are web-based communication tools for social communication have democratized communication in our world today. From education to agriculture, science and technology, governance and health sectors, emerging issues are rapidly brought to the knowledge of everyone like those living in the same town through social media sites. The Internet enabled every nation to be concerned and involved in events that happen anywhere. The emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2019 was a huge global health challenge, and social media were agog with all manner of information about the pandemic, that fake news soon became a serious issue that led to misconceptions about COVID-19 pandemic. The threat to life of Nigerians was palpable as fake news was distracting the efforts of the government to contain the spread with massive information flow. Anchored on technological determinism and uses and gratification theories, the study adopted discourse analysis method to discuss how to tackle social media and COVID-19 issues in Nigeria: The case of fake news and misconceptions. Based on the plethora of secondary data used for the study, it was found that people are easily drawn to the social media contents because they are accessible and interactive among other attractions. It was also revealed that being sites without gatekeepers, social media are prone to fake news about the pandemic. The study recommends among others that social media users should verify any information about COVID-19 before sharing, while media literacy should be inculcated on the citizenry to avert the tendency to believe everything they found on social media


Keywords


Social media; COVID-19; Pandemic; Fake news; Misconceptions;

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.47851/naujocommed.v2i2.122

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