Assessing The Role Of Social Media In Communicating Information On Covid19 Among The University Of Zambia Final Year Students

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the role of social media in communicating information on covid19 among the University of Zambia final year students. The study specifically sought to identify the most used form of social media platform in accessing information about covid-19 among the UNZA final years student; find out the attitude and practice of UNZA final year students towards the information about Covid-19 received through social media; and identify challenges faced in accessing information about Covid-19 on social media by UNZA final year students. The research methodology used stratified sampling were sampling frame for the study was provided by the list of enumeration areas (student’s residence hostels) to select a sample of 100 University of Zambia final year students, and the research design was a non-experimental design. A self-administered questionnaire (semi-structured) was used to collect data from the respondents. The results were analyzed using the Statistical Package Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 23. The findings of the research indicated that the selected students at the University of Zambia mostly used social media platform was Facebook followed by WhatsApp, Twitter and lastly Instagram. Further, the research finding revealed that 92 percent of the students said that social media plays a role in informing people about covid-19 while 6 percent of the students said that social media does not play a role in informing people about covid-19. And 25.3 percent of the respondents practiced hand washing, 27.3 percent were sanitizing, 26.6 percent practiced social distancing, 17.7 percent practiced wearing of face masks in public places, and 3.1 percent of the respondents failed to practice covid19 preventive measures. Furthermore, the research results indicated that most students (38 percent) faced the challenge of internet cost, followed by 30 percent of the student who had challenges in distinguishing credible information from false information, 25 percent of the students faced the challenge of poor internet connectivity and the 7 percent faced the challenge of lack of devices that can access social media. It was concluded that although the information obtained on social media helps students be influenced in practicing the covid-19 preventive measures they still fail to distinguish credible information from false information on social media. And lastly, the study recommends that students need to be educated more on how well they can use social media platforms and help them in identifying the most reliable social media platforms to access the needed information