ஜர்னல் ஆஃப் மாஸ் கம்யூனிகேஷன் & ஜர்னலிசம்

The current study has been designed to study the relationship between social media usage and health awareness practices as well as panic among the Indian youth during COVID-19. A survey was conducted among the University students in Delhi-NCR region to assess the effect of social media on their health behaviour in the wake of the pandemic. An online survey of 250 students was executed employing a 5-point Likert scale based self-administered questionnaire consisting of 23 questions. The data was analysed using smart PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling). The results indicate that behavioural change in a person is key to his protection against the lethal virus. While the social media induced panic does not trigger a positive behaviour change, neither does it lead to protective practices. Moreover, it also shows that the higher the level of awareness about COVID-19, the more likelihood of exhibiting positive health behaviour and adoption methods of protection. It is also revealed that while social media promote behaviour change, protection and public awareness, it may also infuse panic among the users.

Jordan was one of the first Middle Eastern countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors of this paper examined the Jordanian government's persuasive appeals in defense orders issued between March and August 2020 to contain the pandemic. The authors discussed how the focus group responded to these appeals and concluded that this behavior did not halt or reduce the daily incidence or death rates, resulting in a major crisis of trust between the government and the public. The authors also concluded that some measures were not followed by citizens, as evidenced by their failure to follow preventive measures and the timing of the ban, despite the fact that persuasion was used.

The globalization of technology which gave rise to Information Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the information seeking behaviour of human which has shifted attention from broadcast and print media to Social Media. Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF) practice over the years has been a global discussion and its significance has been passed across to Nursing Mothers through several sources i.e. Open campaigns, Hospital Seminars, Television, Radio etc. and the efforts have not yielded desirable results. Little attention has been paid to the role of Social media hence the need to examine the role of Social Media in enlightening Nursing Mothers on the practise of Exclusive Breast Feeding in Ekiti State. The study adopted a Survey design with a study population of 952 Nursing Mothers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for selecting 380 respondents as sample for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were analysed with statistics. Findings revealed that Nursing Mothers in Ekiti State are enlightened about EBF through several Social Media sources but Facebook and WhatsApp appear to be the most prevalent Social Media source of enlightenment on EBF practice, a large percentage of Nursing Mothers were encouraged to breastfeed their infants through the enlightenment obtained from Social Media, age and employment are the most prevalent demographic factors that influence the enlightenment on EBF and some of the challenges in the use of Social Media is the fact that it consumes time, poor network signal, high cost of data subscription etc. The study concluded that Facebook and WhatsApp are the most effective Social Media source on EBF. Therefore, the study recommended that stakeholders should push their adverts and campaigns on Facebook and WhatsApp more frequently