Usage of social media during the pandemic: Seeking support and awareness about COVID‐19 through social media platforms

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Muhammad Saud,Musta'in Mashud,Rachmah Ida
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2417

ACADEMIC PAPER

Usage of social media during the pandemic: Seeking support

and awareness about COVID-19 through social media

platforms

Muhammad Saud

1

|Musta'in Mashud

1

|Rachmah Ida

2

1

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social

and Political Science, Universitas Airlangga,

Jawa Timur, Indonesia

2

Department of Communication, Faculty of

and Political Science, Universitas Airlangga,

Jawa Timur, Indonesia

Correspondence

Muhammad Saud and Musta'in Mashud,

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and

Political Science, Universitas Airlangga,

Indonesia.

Email: muhhammad.saud@gmail.com (M.S.)

and mustain@fisip.unair.ac.id (M.M.)

Funding information

Universitas Airlangga, Grant/Award Number:

Special grant on COVID Outbreak (No. 1061/

UN3.14/PT/2020).

Social media have become popularly use to seek for medical information and have

fascinated the general public to collect information regarding corona virus pandemics

in various perspectives. During these days, people are forced to stay at home and the

social media have connected and supported awareness and pandemic updates. The

present study aims at highlighting the present situation of Indonesian society, where

the outbreak position is quite high. The study collects the data from social media

users from March and April 2020. The data were also compiled from the secondary

sources, like opinions, the literature and scientific articles from reputable journals.

The total number of 348 responses were collected from respondents through ran-

dom sampling technique, and the majority respondents show positive attitudes

toward using social media as medical information instruments. The results demon-

strate that social media have been used to seek social supports from the respondents'

online networks and offline friends, relatives, and colleagues. The study also exam-

ines that the usage of social media platforms is perceived as easy and accessible to

every individual for sharing, posting, and reacting to any medical information regard-

ing the pandemic. Since people continue work from home, and ensuring the social

distance, so, the majority of users have seen family and friends have provided sup-

port and attempt to raise awareness by sharing and circulating a range of information

within their closed-social network.

1|INTRODUCTION

In February 2020, people in the society of Wuhan, China faced a

new kind of pandemic disaster that largely spread into the world.

The virus has rapidly affected hundreds and millions of people in just

few months (Duan & Zhu, 2020; Haleem, Javaid, & Vaishya, 2020;

Kwok, Lai, Wei, Wong, & Tang, 2020; Lei et al., 2020; Rasmussen &

Jamieson, 2020). It infected various people and thousands deaths,

which later, the World Health Organization advised for social dis-

tancing and quarantine of all the affected areas (Wang, Horby,

Hayden, & Gao, 2020). The similar condition goes to Indonesia, the

public interactions have been reduced and the government of Indo-

nesia has changed their country policies to go for lockdown, smart

lockdown, new normal,and advised for minimumphysical

interactions. The present situation in Indonesia is reported that

1,520 people are deaths and over 25,216 are affected, and 6,492

recovered. People with COVID-19 are forced to use social media

and digital platforms to contribute their routines

1

(Verawardina

et al., 2020). The government of Indonesia has implemented several

actions to reduce the physical interactions, such as the closure of

universities, government buildings, and public places for the sake of

public safety, and suggested to work from home (Djalante

et al., 2020). The situation of the corona outbreak also affected the

decision-making of management (Al Eid & Arnout, 2020). However,

to reduce the physical interaction and get awareness, or update

regarding current situation, social media platforms have become sig-

nificant tool for communication and the continuation for the peo-

ple's routines. Bailey, Bonifield, and Arias (2018) examined that

Received: 17 July 2020Revised: 11 August 2020Accepted: 16 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2417

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2417.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd1of9

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2417