With the development of Internet technology and communication technology, the prospect of the digital age has been revealed today. Great changes have also taken place in the way and nature of information generation, circulation, and acceptance. New communication methods represented by social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Weibo have gradually replaced traditional communication methods as the main communication channels in people’s daily life. Statistics show that by 2022, there are more than 4.62 billion social media users worldwide, with more than 1 million new users joining social media daily and each user spending an average of 2.5 hours on social media every day. With the convenience and immediacy of communication, social media has become an important communication channel for people to discuss events, share ideas and interact with each other.
Social media has also been a key outlet for users to receive information about the COVID-19 pandemic and preventative measures. With the help of social media platforms, the public can access virus-related information and promptly take appropriate safe management actions. Given COVID-19’s severe challenges to people’s life, business operation, and public administration, the rich data from social media could help governments formulate more accurate policy responses using social computing and data science technologies. At the same time, however, the lack of regulation and fact-checking make false information, rumors, fake news, and misleading information spread widely on social media, causing excessive negative emotions in the public, disrupting network security and governments’ safety management measures, and aggravating the difficulty of crisis management during the pandemic. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the role of social media in containing COVID-19 and examine how information exposure on social media affects public sentiment as well as how social media can be used to prevent and manage public crises. The purpose of this research topic is to broaden and deepen the understanding of the impact of social media on public psychology and crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The topics of interest include but are not limited to:
-The impact of social media on vaccine acceptance during the pandemic
-The impact of social media on public trust and social support during the pandemic
-Lockdown and mental health
-Comparing the impact of social media and traditional media outlets on users’ knowledge, attitudes, and health practices
-Public service motivation and prosocial behavior during the epidemic
-Job burnout/turnover intention of government employees during the pandemic
-Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on other vaccination hesitations
-Infectious disease modeling
With the development of Internet technology and communication technology, the prospect of the digital age has been revealed today. Great changes have also taken place in the way and nature of information generation, circulation, and acceptance. New communication methods represented by social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Weibo have gradually replaced traditional communication methods as the main communication channels in people’s daily life. Statistics show that by 2022, there are more than 4.62 billion social media users worldwide, with more than 1 million new users joining social media daily and each user spending an average of 2.5 hours on social media every day. With the convenience and immediacy of communication, social media has become an important communication channel for people to discuss events, share ideas and interact with each other.
Social media has also been a key outlet for users to receive information about the COVID-19 pandemic and preventative measures. With the help of social media platforms, the public can access virus-related information and promptly take appropriate safe management actions. Given COVID-19’s severe challenges to people’s life, business operation, and public administration, the rich data from social media could help governments formulate more accurate policy responses using social computing and data science technologies. At the same time, however, the lack of regulation and fact-checking make false information, rumors, fake news, and misleading information spread widely on social media, causing excessive negative emotions in the public, disrupting network security and governments’ safety management measures, and aggravating the difficulty of crisis management during the pandemic. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the role of social media in containing COVID-19 and examine how information exposure on social media affects public sentiment as well as how social media can be used to prevent and manage public crises. The purpose of this research topic is to broaden and deepen the understanding of the impact of social media on public psychology and crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The topics of interest include but are not limited to:
-The impact of social media on vaccine acceptance during the pandemic
-The impact of social media on public trust and social support during the pandemic
-Lockdown and mental health
-Comparing the impact of social media and traditional media outlets on users’ knowledge, attitudes, and health practices
-Public service motivation and prosocial behavior during the epidemic
-Job burnout/turnover intention of government employees during the pandemic
-Impact of COVID-19 vaccination on other vaccination hesitations
-Infectious disease modeling
