Abstract
Personal protection measures are the key to COVID-19 epidemic control and prevention in the community. Newer forms of media present useful options for such information transmission. By presenting primary data from 420 residents in mainland China, this exploratory study aims to explore the communication mechanism which utilizes new media for disseminating epidemic-related information in the community during the COVID-19 outbreak, and to assess its effectiveness by identifying effects of this communication on perceptions and behaviours accordingly. Results show China-originated mobile social media such as WeChat, rather than FB or TW are predominantly used and preferred compared with the traditional media, on which residents are more reliant for information, and through which both types of general and specialized purpose information take significant effects on individuals’ perceptions and behaviors toward personal protection. Particularly, the specialized purpose information is more likely to influence individuals’ personal protection behaviours which are also significantly affected by their perceptions. It reveals that information content or new media content can lead to changes in personal protection perceptions and/or behaviours of residents. This article constructs the mechanism framework of COVID-19 epidemic crisis communication on personal protection. Implications and suggestions are then given for more relevant effective community communication strategy making accordingly. Key words: Community communication, mobile social media, COVID-19, personal protection, media dependency.
Highlights
Over the last decade, there have been six health crises of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) in the world, such as H1N1 Influenza virus outbreak in the U.S in 2009; and presently the novel coronavirus in 2019 (COVID-19)
In order to ensure the quality of the data, participants were required to be more than 18 years old who were considered to be more capable in understanding the information of epidemic control and prevention measures
Utilization of mobile social media: Mobile social media (MSM) tools were utilized for communication of information on COVID-19 epidemic control and prevention in the communities; among them WeChat app was the most used communication tool (Figure 1)
Summary
There have been six health crises of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) in the world, such as H1N1 Influenza virus outbreak in the U.S in 2009; and presently the novel coronavirus in 2019 (COVID-19). Pandemic and 602,244 confirmed deaths among 216 countries, areas or territories, according to the WTO (https://www.who.int)*. To respond to COVID-19 outbreak, the source of the virus infection should be controlled, and its transmission routes should be cut off, especially in the community, as guided by China National Health Commission on January 27, 2020. According to the Guidance of “Enhanced Community Prevention and Control of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia” *(http://www.nhc.gov.cn), the key to community prevention and control (CPC) is to take personal protection (PP) measures (self-protection), such as wearing a face mask, washing hands with soap frequently, no gathering, no personal contact and so on. The importance of self-protection from the epidemic in public lies in the effective avoidance of human-to-human transmission of the virus
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