MASS MEDIA AND THE WAR AGAINST COVID-19
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MASS MEDIA AND THE WAR AGAINST COVID-19
MASS MEDIA.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “mass media” as “forms of media that allow people to communicate and share information via the internet or mobile phones.”
Gowey (2014) defines mass media as a collection of websites and applications used to construct and develop online communities for networking and information sharing.
Mass media are technologies that establish highly interactive platforms for users to communicate, exchange, collaborate, and alter user-generated information, resulting in real-time virtual interactions (Kalpan and Haenlein, 2010, as quoted in Power, 2014).
Web 2.0 enables people to interact, communicate, and convey essential messages and material more widely than ever before. Mass media refers to Internet-based apps that allow users to engage and exchange content and information (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
There are six types of mass media. Kalpan and Haenlein (2010), as mentioned in Dao (2015), mention collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual communities. The most popular forms of mass media are social networking sites, blogs, microblogs, and media sharing.
Blogs are web pages that allow users to share ideas, information, and insights. The blog’s appealing characteristic is that it is bidirectional, allowing you to receive response from readers through comments (Harvey, 2014). Many traditional media outlets now use blog-like features to engage readers in their news coverage.
Twitter is an example of a microblog, yet some experts categorise it as a social networking site (ibid).
Content Sharing: The most common types of content communities are YouTube for videos and Flickr for photographs. The primary function of content communities is to share media content, such as films, photographs, and audio samples, between users.
Internet users can create an account for each of the content communities, upload media content to the sites, and share it. (Balakrishnan and Griffiths, 2017).
Social Networking Sites: Sites like Facebook are ubiquitous in current culture. Its ability to connect people with their friends, family, and other ties sets it apart from traditional forms of mainstream media (Harvey, 2014).
Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, and MySpace are the most popular social networking websites. They are termed Social Networking Sites because they facilitate social interaction.
These websites let users to build personal profiles, invite others to join, view the profiles of other users, share information and content in text, photographs, and videos, and send instant messages to one another (Dao, 2015).
Facebook is the most popular social network in the globe in terms of user base, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, Instagram, and TikTok (Climent, 2020).
People are purchasing smartphones as a result of affordable and quick internet access, and the new age of digital media is gaining traction (Prasiain, 2018). Approximately 63% of Nigerians use the internet (ibid).
Stat Counter, a global web traffic research website, lists Facebook (97.14% users) as the most popular website in Nigeria as of August 2020, followed by YouTube (1.39%), Pinterest (0.58%), Twitter (0.57%), LinkedIn (0.14%), and Instagram (0.12%) (www.gsstatCounter.com,2020).
PANDEMIC
A pandemic is an epidemic disease that affects a significant number of people across a big geographic area (Neumann, 2020). Youngrman (2008) defines an infectious disease as any sickness caused by external pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, and others that enter (infect) the body. These organisms are nearly all undetectable to the naked eye due to their microscopical size.
An infectious disease is deemed endemic to a specific location if it infects a relatively consistent number of persons at any one period. An epidemic is a sudden emergence of a new disease in a territory, or an exceptional increase in the number of people infected with a previously endemic disease.
The distinction between epidemic and pandemic is one of degree. A pandemic occurs when an epidemic rapidly spreads over the world, or across a major portion of the world, and affects a large proportion of the population.
2.2 Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
According to WHO (2020), coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, which causes pneumonia. It is a mild to severe respiratory ailment that can be treated without any extra care.
Older adults and those with pre-existing medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more prone to suffer serious illness (WHO, 2020).
There are yet no particular vaccinations or therapies for COVID-19. Some countries, universities, and research centres developed COVID-19 vaccines; however, all are in various stages of clinical trials.
When an infected individual coughs or sneezes, the virus is transferred mostly by saliva droplets or nasal discharge. As a result, the World Health Organisation recommended that people maintain physical distance as a preventative strategy.
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