The Relationship between Social Media Panic of COVID-19 and Facebook Users’ Psychological State
Abstract
Data and news accounts on coronavirus infection (COVID-19) were easily spread and circulated through web-based networking media and person-to-person communication in the original, scarcely prolonged periods of 2020. Especially on social media where the usage of web-based social networking has increased rapidly during movement control order. Most of them started to post their activities during self-isolation, information on then pandemic and rumors to the other users which created social media panic among the other users. This event could lead to many risks in shaping how the public perceived the information during the movement control order. Travel restrictions is another paradigm, and on such figures that convey an enormous financial misfortune to the economy sector that can create panic and uncertainty among the society. When the pandemic started, social media user shared the information on COVID-19 blindly that could trigger the social media panic and affect their psychology state where they experienced sleep difficulties, panic and distress in managing the public risk perception during crisis. However, few months after the events, they started to prepare themselves with the information and awareness on the pandemic and changed their public risk perception and behavior to identify the social media panic during crisis, this study used the theory developed by Kasperson Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) in 1988, to amplify the public reaction and psychological symptom towards the pandemic and the relation to their social media panic. From this finding, it can be seen that there is a Relationship Between Social Media Panic of COVID- 19 And Facebook Users’ Psychological State.
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Brawman-Mintzer, O., & Yonkers, K. A. (2004). New trends in the treatment of anxiety disorders.
CNS Spectr, 19-27.
Breakwell, G. M., & Barnett, J. (2001). The impact of social amplification of risk on risk communication. Norwich: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Brewer, J. (2020, May 29). Anxiety is contagious. Here's how to contain it. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2020/03/anxiety-iscontagious-heres-how-to- contain-it
Burnap, P., Williams, M. L., Sloan, L., & Rana, O. H. (2014). Tweeting the terror: Modelling the social media reaction to the woolwich terrorist attack. Social Network Analysis and Mining. Busby, J. S. (2013). Managing the Social Amplification of Risk: A Simulation of Interacting Actors.
Journal of the Operational Research Society.
Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2003). Business Research, a Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students. Second Edition. New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.
Devlin, H. (2020, March 6). The Guardian. Retrieved from Don't let coronavirus tip society into panic, say psychologists: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/06/dont-let- coronavirus-tip-society-into-panic-say-psychologists
Dixit, P., & Pandey, S. (2020). Role of Social Media in the coverage of Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Garret, O. (2020, December 13). Retrieved from A Case of Modern Mass Hysteria? The Coronaviru: https://www.wktv.com/content/news/568519502.html
Gold, H. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Inside the WHO's fight to stop false information about coronavirus from spreading: https://www.wktv.com/content/news/568519502.html
Graham, T., & Broersma, M. (2016). Social Networking and the Cultivation of Online Campaigning: A Comparative Study of Dutch Politicians’ Use of Twitter during the 2010 and 2012 General Election Campaigns. ECREA Political Communication Conference 2015: Changing political communication, changing Europe? Denmark.
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Jones, N., Thompson, R., Schetter, D. C., & Silver, R. (2017, October 17). Distress and rumor exposure on social media during a campus lockdown. Retrieved from https://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11663
Kasperson, R. E. (1988). The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework. Risk Analysis An International Journal.
Kent, S. (2020, March 8). NJ COm. Retrieved from Fear spreads like a virus: How coronavirus panic is taking a toll on NJ's mental health: https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/fear- spreads-just-like-a-virus-coronavirus-panic-is-taking-a-toll-on-njs-mental-health.html
Leiss, W. (2001). In the chamber of risks: Understanding risk controversies. McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal & Kingston.
Lim, I. (2020, August 5). Yahoo! News. Retrieved from Kedah’s Sivagangga cluster: What its emergence tells us about Malaysia’s Covid-19 fight: https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/kedah-sivagangga-cluster-emergence-tells- 225800258.html
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Linden, V. D. (2017). Determinants and Measurement of Climate Change Risk Perception, Worry, and Concern. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.
Lowrey, W. (2004). Media dependency during a large-scale social disruption: The case of September 11. Mass Communication , 339–357.
Mckeever, A. (2020, March 17). National Geographic. Retrieved from Coronavirus is spreading panic. Here’s the science behind why.: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/modern-history/why-we-evolved- to-feel-panic-anxiety/
New Straits Times . (2020). Retrieved from Panic buying over Covid-19 reported worldwide: https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/03/571926/panic-buying-over-covid-19- reported-worldwide
News, U. (2020, February 7). Coronavirus: demand for face masks creates shortfall for those in real need. Retrieved from United Nation News: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/02/1056942
Nunnally, J. (1967). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Posetti, J. (2018, January 4). Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age . Retrieved from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0024/002480/248054E.pdf
Ren, S. Y., Gao, R. D., & Chen, Y. L. (2020). Fear can be more harmful than the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in controlling the corona virus disease 2019 epidemic. World Journal of Clinical Cases.
Reuters. (2020, October 1). Free Malaysia Today. Retrieved from Malaysia risks investment troubles as political drama drags on: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/01/malaysia-risks- investment-troubles-as-political-drama-drags-on/
RTE. (2020, March 12). Tom Hanks and wife in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
Retrieved from RTE: https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0312/1121761-hanks-covid-19/
Smith, W., & Freedman, D. O. (2020). Isolation, quarantine, social distancing and community containment: pivotal role for old-style public health measures in the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Journal Travel Med.
Sundarasen, S., Chinna, K., Kamaludin, K., & Nurunnabi, M. (2020). Psychological Impact of COVID-19 and Lockdown among University Students in Malaysia: Implications and Policy Recommendations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Testa, A., Giannuzzi, R., Sollazzo, F., & Petrongolo, L. (2013). Psychiatric emergencies (part I): Psychiatric disorders causing organic symptoms. 55-64.
The Star. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Coronavirus and how social media firms are combating the spread of misinformation about the disease: https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech- news/2020/03/05/coronavirus-and-how-social-media-firms-are-combating-the-spread-of- misinformation-about-the-disease
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Wang, J., Gao, W., Fei, X. G., & Qing, Y. Y. (2020). Social psychology survey under novel coronavirus pneumonia: An analysis based on the survey data of 24–25 January 2020. Governance 2020, 55–64.
Weinreich, N. K. (2006). Social Marketing Quarterly. Retrieved from Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Social Marketing Research.: http://www.social- marketing.com/research.html
Wheaton, M., Abramowitz, J., Berman, N., & Fabricant, L. (2012). Psychological predictors of anxiety in response to the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic. Cogn Ther Res, 210–8.
WHO. (2017). World Health Organisation. Retrieved from Communicating risk in public health emergencies: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259807/9789241550208- eng.pdf?sequence=2
Williams, C. (2007). Research Methods. Journal of Business & Economic Research.\
Wirz, C. D., Xenos, M. A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D., Chung, J. H., & Massarani, L. (2018). Rethinking Social Amplification of Risk: Social Media and Zika in Three Languages. Risk Analysis An International Journal.
Wong, J. C. (2020, February 1). The Guardian. Retrieved from As the coronavirus spreads, misinformation is spreading even faster: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/31/coronavirus-misinformation- spread-facebook-conspiracy-theories
Yagnik, J., & Chandra, Y. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic: Social Media For Sharing Information, Spreading Rumours, And Fake News. AN INTERNATIONAL BILINGUAL PEER REVIEWED REFEREED RESEARCH JOURNAL, 185-189
Published
2021-07-01
How to Cite
SAAHAR @ SAABAR, Suhaimee et al.
The Relationship between Social Media Panic of COVID-19 and Facebook Users’ Psychological State.
Asian Journal of Behavioural Sciences, [S.l.], v. 3, n. 2, p. 92-107, july 2021.
ISSN 2710-5865.
Available at: <https://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ajbs/article/view/14039>. Date accessed: 14 sep. 2024.
Section
Articles
