Impact of Social Media in the Fight Against Misinformation on Corona Virus Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined the impact of social media within the fight against misinformation on coronavirus pandemic. The study therefore assessed the character of coronavirus pandemic information shared on social media sites by undergraduate students in central region of Ghana. Structured questionnaire copies were administered to 355 undergraduate students in University of Education, Winneba, University of Cape Coast, and Cape Coast Technical University. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result showed that 71.3% of the scholars across the chosen universities were conscious of social media and made used of it. Facebook was the foremost favourite social media platform followed by Instagram and WhatsApp, while Kinschat, LinkedIn, Skype and BBM were least preferred social media sites. Independent samples test result showed there was no significant gender difference within the preference of social media sites (t = 1.039, p>0.05). The result showed that 81.4% of the scholars had encounter coronavirus pandemic information on social media, while only 24.8% had shared coronavirus pandemic information on social media. Prevention methods and general coronavirus pandemic knowledge were the most sorts of information shared. ANOVA result further revealed significant variation within the sort of coronavirus pandemic information shared on social media among the three universities (F = 5.177; p<0.05). The Post Hoc Test of multiple comparison indicated that the type of coronavirus pandemic information shared in Cape Coast Technical University differed significantly from those shared in University of Education, Winneba and University of Cape Coast respectively.

Keywords: SOCIAL MEDIA, MISINFORMATION, CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC

DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/95-05

Publication date: February 28^th 2021