Статья

Fear experiences of social media users in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic-lockdown: An online survey

J. Sarfo, E. Ansah,
2020

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is known to place a burden of fear upon individuals in the affected communities. This is mainly due to the unregulated circulation of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fear messages on social media. During a three-week partial lockdown of some cities in Ghana, with high rate of COVID-19 cases, many social media users were exposed to the global pandemic of COVID-19 misinformation. As there exists little empirical data on the topic, we used an online survey to explore the lived fear experiences of social media users in Ghana. To understand their experiences, data from 27 persons who lived in Accra, Tema, and Kumasi were collected via a qualitative online survey between 21st April and 10th May 2020. Using Colaizzi's 7-step analytical approach, we conducted a phenomenological analysis for participants' (29.6 % males and 70.4 % females) text data until we reached data saturation. We observed that respondents shared varied fear experiences during the lockdown. Participants' fears included (1) fear of risk for COVID-19 infection, (2) fear of using a health facility, (3) fear of impending scarcities of essential home commodities, (4) fear of economic crisis, and (5) fear of the unknown about the pandemic. We recommend that the government, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders regulate the large volume of misinformation coming through social media platforms. Furthermore, much effort is needed by Ghana's Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to provide adequate health education on COVID-19 to promote public mental health.

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Версии

  • 1. Version of Record от 2020-12-01

Метаданные

Об авторах
  • J. Sarfo
    University of Cape Coast Ghana, Cherkas Global University, Volgograd State University
  • E. Ansah
    University of Cape Coast Ghana
Название журнала
  • International Journal of Media and Information Literacy
Том
  • 5
Выпуск
  • 2
Страницы
  • 199-204
Номер гранта
  • undefined
Тип документа
  • journal article
Тип лицензии Creative Commons
  • CC BY
Правовой статус документа
  • Свободная лицензия
Источник
  • scopus