The Best Online Tools Based on Media Preference Reflected by Health Information Received on Social Media amongst Diabetic Patients in Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Background: Diabetes mellitus has become a major public health problem globally. Social media could be useful in assisting clinical practice and sharing health-related information to improve self-management and to promote a positive behavioural change. This study aims to develop a guide on the best online tools by determining the media preference reflected by health- related information received from social media amongst diabetic patients in Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz (HCTM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Methods: This study was conducted cross-sectional on 174 respondents, who were selected by using a simple random sampling method. Socio-demographic data and the use of the internet and media for health-related information were obtained via questionnaires. Results: The most preferred social media used for searching and sharing health-related information was WhatsApp (73.6%), followed by Facebook (67.8%), Instagram (18.4%) and Twitter (17.2%). The social media preference related to socio-demographic data of age was statistically significant (P < 0.002), which had a medium effect. Furthermore, the media preference was not significantly related to health-related information searched or shared on social media and the frequency of usage. Conclusion: Indeed, the social media have been an essential media platform to enhance public awareness concerning public health. This calls for evolution to further enhance the use of social media amongst healthcare practitioners to emphasise health promotion and empower the patients to play an active role in their healthcare. This study provides a guideline for the medical researchers, practitioners or healthcare providers in choosing WhatsApp as an online medium to communicate with diabetic patients in the future, specifically in Malaysia.

Does Social Media Breed Misinformation and Conspiracies? Survey on Iraqi Undergraduate Students: The Case of COVID-19 (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED This paper aims to explore the general relationship between believing in conspiracy theories, and media preference to topics aiming to expand recent research suggesting that college students who have conspiratorial thinking tend to use social media to promote their conspiracy theories. This study surveyed a sample of 331 college students (230 male and 101 female) using the psychometric assessment of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), the most widely used measure of the general belief in conspiracy theories. The scale includes five related but distinct theory types: government malfeasance, extraterrestrial cover-ups, malevolent global conspiracies, personal well-being, and information control. This research demonstrated that most conspiracies that attract undergraduate students were ones that stated the reasons for the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of world conflict, as part of an international war, and as a result of the US-China trade war, and found that 58.44% of undergraduate students believe that COVID-19 is a global conspiracy. Among these, 35.67% said that this plot is part of a competition between China and the USA, 26.11% believe it is a biological war. Social media is an important part of these students’ information consumption: 71% prefer Facebook as the leading info resource on social media.

DIGITAL MEDIA USE OF GENERATION Z DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study examines the depth (frequency), and width (different types) of digital media use about COVID-19 pandemic by Indonesian Gen Z. Participants come from several regions and consist of Gen Z who were born between 1995-2010. A survey towards 326 participants found that WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube are platforms that were used by Gen Z in their daily life. Meanwhile, this generation chose WhatsApp as the platform to share information on COVID-19 and other platforms like Instagram and Twitter to receive and post information, image, video, opinion, and personal experiences related to COVID-19. Finding also shows that in daily life, the participants can be categorised as heavy users because they spent more than four hours a day to use digital media. In contrast, they only spent less than an hour per day to find and share information about COVID-19. Therefore, this study argues that there are differences in media preference between daily life and toward COVID-19 pandemic information.

Traditional and Online Media: Relationship between Media Preference, Credibility Perceptions , Predispositions, and European Identity

The present study investigates the relationship between people’s preference of either traditional or online media for news consumption, credibility evaluation of media and their sense of European identity. In order to do so, the study draws on the Social Identity Theory and the findings of social psychologists which situate European identity a concept that corresponds to an individuals’ subjective assignment to a collective and their affective and evaluative attachment to it. The analysis based on Eurobarometer survey data reveals that preferences of both online and traditional media for political news positively affects European identity. However, such an effect is dependent on people’s pre-existing attitudes towards the EU and if they perceive the media to be neutral and credible.

DIGITAL MEDIA USE OF GENERATION Z DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study examines the depth (frequency), and width (different types) of digital media use about COVID-19 pandemic by Indonesian Gen Z. Participants come from several regions and consist of Gen Z who were born between 1995-2010. A survey towards 326 participants found that WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube are platforms that were used by Gen Z in their daily life. Meanwhile, this generation chose WhatsApp as the platform to share information on COVID-19 and other platforms like Instagram and Twitter to receive and post information, image, video, opinion, and personal experiences related to COVID-19. Finding also shows that in daily life, the participants can be categorised as heavy users because they spent more than four hours a day to use digital media. In contrast, they only spent less than an hour per day to find and share information about COVID-19. Therefore, this study argues that there are differences in media preference between daily life and toward COVID-19 pandemic information.

Manual Dexterity is not Related to Media Viewing but is Related to Perceptual Bias in School-Age Children

Although the media can have both negative and positive effects on children’s cognitive and motor functions, its influence on their perceptual bias and manual dexterity is unclear. Thus, we investigated the association between media viewing time, media preference level, perceptual bias, and manual dexterity in 100 school-aged children. Questionnaires completed by children and their parents were used to ascertain media viewing time and preference levels. Perceptual bias and manual dexterity were measured using the visual-tactile temporal order judgment task and Movement Assessment Battery for Children—2nd edition, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between age and media viewing time and between media viewing time and media preference level. There was also a significant negative correlation between visual bias and manual dexterity. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that increasing visual bias was a significant predictor of decreasing manual dexterity. Further, children with low manual dexterity showed significant visual bias compared to those with high manual dexterity, when matched for age and gender. The present results demonstrated that, in school-aged children, although viewing media was not associated with perceptual bias and manual dexterity, there was a significant association between perceptual bias and manual dexterity.

Advertising and Its Effects on Consumer Behaviour in Kathmandu Valley

Nowadays, advertisement is considered as one of the most message medium to influence buying habit of the consumer. This study aims to answer the questions that whether the demographic background of ultimate consumeri.e. Age, gender, education and occupation has a varying effect on the media preference due to advertisements. The sample of 115 questionnaires we redistributed and out of these 110 responses recorded and compared. The result indicated that respondents like preferred TV advertisements have been found more popular as compared to Radio, Print and other media.