Published 2021-12-30
Keywords
- Youth,
- Lockdown,
- Social media,
- COVID-19 pandemic,
- Infodemic
- Information Pollution ...More
How to Cite
Abstract
The year 2020 witnessed one of the worst pandemic outbreaks in the history of humankind. The deadly coronavirus, COVID -19 took the world by storm. Even though the virus is presumed to have originated in 2019, by March 2020 it crossed all boundaries and swept everything in its way, from the global economy to trade; everything collapsed. When the entire globe was confined within four walls, social media disseminated information across borders at a lightning pace. We live in the era of digital media where everything is just a click away. Social media has replaced traditional media where most youth obtain information on any topic. However social media is also a double-edged sword, having its pros and cons. On the one hand, it helps disseminate awareness during crises, however, it also adds to the misinformation burden. COVID-19 witnessed misinformation and fake news spread like wildfire. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has described, it was an “Infodemic” running parallel to the pandemic. Unlike the olden days were news channels, newspapers and radios were the only sources of getting news updates, the advent of social media flipped the news consumption pattern. The current study looks at how news was consumed during the lockdown by a specific age group of people and how social media platforms changed the face of news consumption.
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References
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