Policy response, social media and science journalism for the sustainability of the public health system amid the COVID-19 outbreak: The Vietnam lessons

Having geographical proximity and a high volume of trade with China, the first country to record an outbreak of the new Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Vietnam was expected to have a high risk of transmission. However, as of 4 April 2020, in comparison to attempts to containing the disease around the world, responses from Vietnam are seen as prompt and effective in protecting the interests of its citizens, with 239 confirmed cases and no fatalities. This study analyzes the situation in terms of Vietnam’s policy response, social media and science journalism. A self-made web crawl engine was used to scan and collect official media news related to COVID-19 between the beginning of January and April 4, yielding a comprehensive dataset of 14,952 news items. The findings shed light on how Vietnam—despite being under-resourced—has demonstrated political readiness to combat the emerging pandemic since the earliest days. Timely communication on any developments of the outbreak from the government and the media, combined with up-to-date research on the new virus by the Vietnamese science community, have altogether provided reliable sources of information. By emphasizing the need for immediate and genuine cooperation between government, civil society and private individuals, the case study offers valuable lessons for other nations concerning not only the concurrent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but also the overall responses to a public health crisis.

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Policy Response, Social Media and Science Journalism for the Sustainability of the Public Health System Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Vietnam Lessons

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12072931 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 2931 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Viet-Phuong La ◽

Thanh-Hang Pham ◽

Manh-Toan Ho ◽

Minh-Hoang Nguyen ◽

Khanh-Linh P. Nguyen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

High Volume ◽

Policy Response ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Science Journalism ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Science Community ◽

The Media ◽

The Government

Having geographical proximity and a high volume of trade with China, the first country to record an outbreak of the new Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Vietnam was expected to have a high risk of transmission. However, as of 4 April 2020, in comparison to attempts to containing the disease around the world, responses from Vietnam are seen as prompt and effective in protecting the interests of its citizens, with 239 confirmed cases and no fatalities. This study analyzes the situation in terms of Vietnam’s policy response, social media and science journalism. A self-made web crawl engine was used to scan and collect official media news related to COVID-19 between the beginning of January and April 4, yielding a comprehensive dataset of 14,952 news items. The findings shed light on how Vietnam—despite being under-resourced—has demonstrated political readiness to combat the emerging pandemic since the earliest days. Timely communication on any developments of the outbreak from the government and the media, combined with up-to-date research on the new virus by the Vietnamese science community, have altogether provided reliable sources of information. By emphasizing the need for immediate and genuine cooperation between government, civil society and private individuals, the case study offers valuable lessons for other nations concerning not only the concurrent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but also the overall responses to a public health crisis.

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COVID-19 as an “Infodemic” in Public Health: Critical Role of the Social Media

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.610623 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Debanjan Banerjee ◽

K. S. Meena

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Critical Role ◽

Global Public Health ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Multiple Sources ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

The Impact

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has emerged as a significant and global public health crisis. Besides the rising number of cases and fatalities, the outbreak has also affected economies, employment and policies alike. As billions are being isolated at their homes to contain the infection, the uncertainty gives rise to mass hysteria and panic. Amidst this, there has been a hidden epidemic of “information” that makes COVID-19 stand out as a “digital infodemic” from the earlier outbreaks. Repeated and detailed content about the virus, geographical statistics, and multiple sources of information can all lead to chronic stress and confusion at times of crisis. Added to this is the plethora of misinformation, rumor and conspiracy theories circulating every day. With increased digitalization, media penetration has increased with a more significant number of people aiding in the “information pollution.” In this article, we glance at the unique evolution of COVID-19 as an “infodemic” in the hands of social media and the impact it had on its spread and public reaction. We then look at the ways forward in which the role of social media (as well as other digital platforms) can be integrated into social and public health, for a better symbiosis, “digital balance” and pandemic preparedness for the ongoing crisis and the future.

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COVID-19 and the Media in Nigeria

Glimpse ◽

10.5840/glimpse202122226 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 83-98

Author(s):

Obiageli Pauline Ohiagu ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

The Other ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Public Health Crisis ◽

Other Hand ◽

The Media ◽

The Impact

This chapter provides a Nigerian perspective to the global COVID-19 public health crisis that began in 2019. Two approaches were used to explain the impact of COVID-19 on the media in Nigeria and the effect of the latter on the spread/containment of the virus. The pandemic directly limited the operations of the media in many ways: socially, economically, and otherwise. On the other hand, both mainstream and social media was instrumental in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 through information, education, and infotainment.

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Optimalisasi Penggunaan Bahasa Iklan Interaktif dalam Pembuatan Iklan Online Produk Unggulan di Kelurahan Semarapura Kaja

Linguistic Community Services Journal ◽

10.22225/licosjournal.v2i1.3136 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 20-29

Author(s):

Agus Darma Yoga Pratama ◽

I Gusti Ayu Agung Dian Susanthi ◽

Ni Putu Sri Mariyatni

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Online Media ◽

Community Partnership ◽

Interactive Advertising ◽

The Media ◽

Advertising Language ◽

The Government ◽

Small Medium Enterprises ◽

Medium Enterprises ◽

Partnership Program

Klungkung Regency is not only famous for producing songket and endek fabrics, but there are still many other Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that have been born and developed there. Semarapura Kaja Village is one of the MSME centers which certainly has a lot of potential that must be supported and developed so that it can become bigger and more independent. However, not all of these MSMEs have adequate capital, strategies, and support to be able to develop rapidly so that synergy and collaboration with the government and other parties are needed to overcome these problems. One solution that can be offered is to carry out promotional activities with interactive advertising language to attract consumer interest through online media in the hope of expanding market share and of course increasing income for MSME in Semarapura Kaja Village. This Community Partnership Program (PKM) educates and assists MSME to create good promotion and marketing strategies, either through print or online media. Assistance in optimizing the use of interactive advertising language in making online advertisements for superior products in Semarapura Kaja Village is targeting MSME who sell Balinese traditional clothing as one of the characteristics of Klungkung Regency which is the center of MSME traditional clothing. In its implementation, it was found that people are still very ignorant not only about advertising language but also with how to create, manage, and develop social media for promotion because there are still social media such as: Instagram and Facebook that are not effective and even not active in uploading content so that the form of implementation of assistance is direct and not in groups to maximize the results. MSMEs that are partners in the Community Partnership Program (PKM) are Dex's Pong and Tri Arta Collection. MSME have been assisted to socialize the importance of professionally managed social media with interactive advertising language, how to create attractive visual content for potential customers, to the importance of publication in print or online media. It is hoped that MSME will be able to consciously and independently promote their products in the future through the media consistently and continuously.

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PENDIDIKAN LITERASI DIGITAL DI KALANGAN USIA MUDA DI KOTA BANDUNG

PEDAGOGIA Jurnal Ilmu Pendidikan ◽

10.17509/pdgia.v16i2.11327 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 146 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hana Silvana ◽

Cecep Darmawan

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Young People ◽

Digital Literacy ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Literacy Programs ◽

Case Study Method ◽

The Media ◽

The Government ◽

Use Of Social Media

AbstrakFenomena pengunaan media sosial sebagai media online semakin massive pada dekade ini. Kalangan muda sebagai generasi milenial atau digital native merupakan pengguna terbesar dalam penggunaan media sosial saat ini. Penelitian mengenai literasi digital masih jarang dilakukan terutama di Indonesia. Subyek penelitian ini adalah kalangan usia muda dengan rentang usia 17–21 tahun yang merupakan pengguna aktif media sosial. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode studi kasus. Informan yang dijadikan sampel penelitian sebanyak 5 orang dan 1 orang informan kunci dari pakar literasi media. Temuan yang diperoleh pada penelitian ini menunjukan pentingnya program literasi digital yang memberikan dampak positif bagi pengetahuan, pemahaman dan keterampilan dalam menggunakan media terutama media sosial yang saat ini sering dijadikan sumber informasi oleh khalayak terutama oleh kalangan yang berusia muda. Program ini memberikan kontribusi yang signifikan pada penyebaran informasi dalam menggunakan media massa terutama media sosial yang digunakan oleh kalangan usia muda sehingga ada kesadaran dalam menggunakan media. Pada pendidikan pelatihan (diklat) ini peserta belum semua mempunyai keahlian ini dikarenakan keahlian ini memerlukan latihan yang terus menerus dan konsisten sehingga mereka dapat melakukannya dengan baik. Oleh karena itu pendidikan literasi digital merupakan solusi yang dapat dilakukan oleh pemerintah dan elemen masyarakat dan civitas akademika yang peduli terhadap kemajuan bangsa. AbstractThe phenomenon of the use of social media as an online media is increasingly massive in the use of this decade. Young people as the native millennial or digital generation are the biggest users in the use of social media today. Research on digital literacy is still rare, especially in Indonesia. The subjects of this study were young people aged 17-21 years that were active users of social media. This study uses a qualitative approach to the case study method. The informants who were used as research samples were 5 people and 1 key informant from media literacy experts. The findings obtained in this study indicate the importance of digital literacy programs that have a positive impact on knowledge, understanding and skills in using the media, especially social media which is now often used as a source of information by audiences, especially among young people. information on using mass media, especially social media used by young people so that there is awareness in using the media. In this education participants do not all have this expertise because this skill requires continuous and consistent training so that they can do it well. Therefore digital literacy education is a solution that can be done by the government and elements of society and academics who care about the progress of the nation.

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Exploring Distrust in the Wait and See: Lessons for Vaccine Communication

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/00027642211062865 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 000276422110628

Author(s):

P. Christopher Palmedo ◽

Lauren Rauh ◽

Hannah Stuart Lathan ◽

Scott C. Ratzan

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Ethnically Diverse ◽

Health Interventions ◽

Lower Income ◽

Future Health ◽

Effective Delivery ◽

The Media ◽

Wait And See ◽

The Government ◽

Depth Interviews

We conducted in-depth interviews with survey respondents who were distrusting of government authorities and/or communications, and also undecided about accepting the COVID-19 vaccine. Our sample was racially and ethnically diverse, mostly lower income without a college degree. Participants were concerned about their own health and cared about public health, but expressed mistrust in the government and the media. They generally felt ignored by public and institutional systems and expressed a desire to be listened to. These attitudes all influenced lack of confidence in the vaccine. We identify specific opportunities for intervention and communication in vaccine promotion. We propose longer-term solutions for improving trust, which is essential for the effective delivery of future health interventions.

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Who is Setting Emotions? A Comparative Study on Emotion Diffusion in Social Media among Public, Government and Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27056 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shuhuan Zhou ◽

Yi Wang

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Information Exchange ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Chinese Government ◽

The Public ◽

The Media ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact ◽

Time Point

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.

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Communicating During an Outbreak or Public Health Investigation

The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190933692.003.0012 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 243-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abbigail J. Tumpey ◽

David Daigle ◽

Glen Nowak

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

At Risk ◽

Social Media ◽

News Media ◽

Effective Communication ◽

Crisis Response ◽

Communication Strategy ◽

The Public ◽

The Media

Effective communication during an outbreak or public health investigation is crucial for fostering adoption of public health recommendations and minimizing or preventing harm. During outbreaks, a comprehensive communication strategy integrating news media, social media, and partner engagement is essential for reaching affected persons and for keeping everyone informed about public health actions and recommendations. The strategies outlined in this chapter are the foundation for rapidly and effectively conveying information and public health recommendations to the persons at risk, the media, and the different entities involved in the response. Regardless of the public health event’s cause, core communication actions and steps will be similar; however, in every outbreak or public health investigation, perceptions and needs will vary among target audiences, partners (i.e., persons or organizations that can play a role in the crisis response), and persons or organizations with a connection or interest in the outbreak (stakeholders).

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Controlling compassion: the media, refugees, and asylum seekers

The Health of Refugees ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198814733.003.0015 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 275-294

Author(s):

Pascale Allotey ◽

Peter Mares ◽

Daniel D. Reidpath

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Access To Care ◽

Asylum Seekers ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

Great Power ◽

Policy Response ◽

Media Reporting ◽

The Media ◽

Refugees And Asylum Seekers

This chapter explains the influence of the media in controlling the discourse about humanitarianism, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Changing responses to the arrival of several waves of refugees in Australia are used as an example. Media reporting has great power to shape public perceptions of these populations, and the result is often a populist policy response that also ultimately has an impact on access to care and services. In recent years the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has also had a great impact, as exemplified by the almost instantaneous worldwide response to the image of a drowned Syrian child refugee in 2015.

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