CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE AMBIVALENT POTENTIALS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN COVID 19 PANDEMIC CAMPAIGNS

Abstract

The fear created by the Coronavirus as seen in the world today and the manner social media is churning out all manner of information (misinformation, disinformation, memes, innuendos, half - truths, lies etc.) about its cure and prevention is creating a situation of uncertainty. The situation becomes more disturbing since none of the claims in social media platforms regarding the therapies and recipes (solutions) for the cure or prevention of COVID-19 has been approved or certified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). It seems, however, that only the prevalence of social media can suffice for the provision of adequate, regular and up - to - date information on the pandemic. This can also explain the reason for leveraging social media platforms to enhance fast and wide diffusion of knowledge about Coronavirus all over the world. By its nature, social media allows for information to be readily shared – a role it has seemingly played in the face of the COVID- 19 pandemic - and unlike traditional news outlets there is no filter, no fact - checking and often a lot of bias. It becomes imperative therefore to assess the ambivalent potentials which social media display in the face of COVID- 19 pandemic vis-à-vis the impacts they have on the consumers of the information. The paper adopted the library research approach in which relevant conceptual literatures and empirical studies were analysed with the aim to ascertain whether social media display ambivalence in the campaign against the spread of COVID-19. The paper found, among others that the ambivalent potentials of social media use in the campaign against COVID-19 was glaring. It recommends, among others that consumers of social media products in this period should listen more to and, or check for updates by governments and other authorised agencies such as WHO and CDC rather than relying on unwholesome information from social media platforms.