Abstract
In Malaysia, the Restricted Movement Order's implementation has turned the media to become the main primary source of information for the people. As a result, numerous mendacious news about the Covid-19 outbreak began to appear on air. Such reports and claims made in response to the outbreak, which the World Health Organisation labelled as "infodemics," have been excessively proliferated on media (Thomas, 2020). Hence, the study explores the Malaysians' perceptions of the extent to which the Covid-19 outbreak infodemics produced by the local media amplify global panic in society. The study applies a qualitative research design, using a case-study analysis on perception to discover the Malaysians' awareness and views on the virus outbreak based on the media's information and how these contents elevate public reactions. Focus group interviews are conducted with 15 Malaysian citizens residing in five different states in Malaysia, namely Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Johor, and Pulau Pinang. A set of 10 open-ended questions are probed to participants during the interviews. Data are analysed following a deductive approach and clustered according to the research questions. The following five-step framework is applied: data familiarisation, thematic analysis framework, coding, plotting, and interpretation. The validity of data is achieved through inter-rater reliability. Four themes, namely media preferences and mainly sought information, awareness of the fake news spread on media, news reliability check, and reaction-based impact in response to the infodemics were established. The majority of the participants favoured official news broadcasts for updates on the outbreak. A few of them reported consuming infodemics that were conveyed by social media platforms. Participants indicated being well-informed on the spread of fake news on media, and 53% reported difficulties in verifying the information they received due to excessive coverage by media. Finally, 60% of the participants reported a significant influence of the infodemics they consumed towards their perceptions and reactions.
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