The role of the media and social networking sites in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Summary

This paper addresses the role of the media, and the social networking sites during the Covid-19 Pandemic that have recently swept the world.

During the first phase of the virus outbreak, the media was a little confused in covering the pandemic, due to lack of information about the pandemic, where the media activity was limited to dissemination of recommendations and advice on social distancing and means of prevention. But after a while, the traditional media became more present and more professional, given the fact that the public turned to media as a reliable source of news, after rumors, fallacies, myths, conspiracy theories and others had spread widely among people, especially through social media. Therefore, the spread of the virus and people’s panic boosted confidence in the media, whose presence had declined in the past years due to the public’s shift towards social networking sites.

Social media had a new experience with the spread of a virus, but this experience was marred by many errors, at the beginning. However, after a short while, social networking sites organized themselves and adapted to the new reality, and even turned the challenge into an opportunity, through which they increased the number of participants and interactors, millions of people around the world, which increased their profits by billions of dollars.

The paper concludes that since the era of viruses is not likely to end with the Covid-19 Pandemic, taking advantage of the experience of addressing the Covid-19 Pandemic will be extremely effective  in any upcoming entitlement on the global level.