The role of social media in building trust towards the Egyptian Government performance during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assisstant Professor at Journalism department– Faculty of Mass Communication– Cairo University

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization. This pandemic has since saturated the headlines of media channels that disseminate information to global citizens, COVID-19 has become the most widely talked about topic on social media, Previous studies suggested that trust between governors and the governed is essential to facilitating good governance. This claim has become a prominent contention during the coronavirus pandemic.
Objective To analyze and evaluate how public attitudes and trust in government communications are affected using social media by Egyptian youth during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Method: The study is based on a web-survey with adults aged between 18- 40 years old, run in Egypt during April 2020, After the first case of COVID19 was reported in Egypt.
Findings:  the study finds support that the corona crisis led to higher levels of trust. in government and more positive attitudes towards governmental officials, most agreed or strongly agreed that information from official government sources Trust in government communication was significantly associated with a higher degree of satisfaction and support to governmental decisions during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Results showed that higher trust in government was significantly associated with higher adoption of health and social behaviors in all.
Conclusion: The findings show that trust is a vital commodity when managing an evolving outbreak, Egyptian youth tend to have positive attitudes towards government.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

([1])  Domien Bol,. et al. (2020) ‘The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on political support: Some good news for democracy?’, European Journal of Political Research, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12401.
 ([1] )Vivienne Moxham-Hall and Lucy Strang,” public opinion and trust in government during a public health crisis” , 20 April 2020 , available online: Public opinion and trust in government during a public health crisis (kcl.ac.uk. (
  ([1]) Ibid.
([1])Anat Gesser-Edelsburg et al, “Analysis of Public Perception of the Israeli Government’s Early Emergency Instructions Regarding COVID-19: Online Survey Study, JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH, 2020;22’5.
([1] )  Arndit Leininger& Max Shaub, (2020). Voting at the dawn of a global pandemic. SocArXiv, 12 Apr. 2020. Web.https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/a32r7.
([1])  Eric Merkley, et al.,. (2020). A rare moment of cross-partisanconsensus: Elite and public response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Canadian Journal of PoliticalScience, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423920000311
([1]) Goldstein, Daniel A. N. and Wiedemann, Johannes, Who Do You Trust? The Consequences of Political and Social Trust for Public Responsiveness to COVID-19 Orders (April 19, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3580547 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3580547
([1])   Qingpeng Zhang, “Characterizing the Propagation of Situational Information in Social Media During COVID-19 Epidemic: A Case Study on Weibo”، Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews, vol.7,no.2,April 2020.
([1] )Dominik Schraff (2020) Political Trust During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Rally Around the Flag or Lockdown Effects? SocArXiv. Epub ahead of print 8 June. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/pu47c.
([1] )Chris G. Sibley, et al,” Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Nationwide Lockdown on Trust, Attitudes Toward Government, and Well-Being” American Psychologist ,2020, Vol. 75, No. 5, 618 – 630.
([1] )Anat Gesser-Edelsburg et al, Op. cit.
([1] )Alessandro Lovari,” Spreading (Dis)Trust: Covid-19 Misinformation and Government Intervention in Italy, Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 458–461
([1]) Vanessa W Lim et al.,” Public perceptions of COVID-19 and behaviour change, Government trust, perceptions of COVID-19 and behaviour change: cohort surveys, Singapore,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization; 28 October 2020.
([1] )Daniel A.N. Goldstein and Johannes Wiedemann (2020) Who Do You Trust? The Consequences of Political and Social Trust for Public Responsiveness to COVID-19 Orders. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3580547 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3580547
([1] )Peter Esaiasson, et al. (2020) How the Coronavirus Crisis Affects Citizen Trust in Government Institutions and in Unknown Others – Evidence from ‘the Swedish Experiment’. SocArXiv.Epub ahead of print 30 April. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/6yw9r.
([1])Jia Wang Zhifeng. (2020), Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats (SWOT) Analysis of China’s Prevention and Control Strategy for the
COVID-19 Epidemic, International Journal of Environmental Research and
Public Health; Basel Vol. 17, Iss. 7, PP. 22-35
([1])Vivienne Moxham-Hall and Lucy Strang,Op.cit.
([1])Francese Amat, et al. (2020) Pandemics Meet Democracy. Experimental Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain. SocArXiv. 6 April. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/dkusw.
([1])Richard Fletcher,et.al.,” Trust in UK Government and News Media COVID19 Information Down, Concerns over Misinformation from Government and Politicians, https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/trust-uk-government-and-news-media-covid-19-information-down-concerns-over-misinformation
([1])Qiuyan Liao,et.al.,” Public Engagement and Government Responsiveness in the Communications About COVID-19 During the Early Epidemic Stage in China: Infodemiology Study on Social Media Data, JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH, 2020 | vol. 22 | iss. 5 | e18796
([1])Daniel Devine,et.al.,” Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic: What are the Consequences of and for Trust? An Early Review of the Literature, Political Studies Review, vol.1, 2020.
([1])Qing  Han,et.al, Trust in government and its associations with health behavior and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic,June 2020" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342720452__
([1])Olivier BARGAIN & Ulugbek AMINJONOV, “Trust and Compliance to Public Health Policies in Times of COVID-19, Bordeaux Economics Working Papers, BxWP2020-06.
https://ideas.repec.org/p/grt/bdxewp/2020-06.html
([1])Domien Bol, et al. (2020) ‘The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on political support: Some good news for democracy?, European Journal of Political Research, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12401.
([1])Marc Oliver Rieger&, Mei Wang,” Trust in Government Actions during the COVID-19 Crisis, May 19, 2020
([1])Marc Andre: Empirical insights for designing information and communication
technology for International Disaster Response, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 47,2020
([1]) Rajvikran Madurai: Restruetured Society and environment: Areview on potential technological strategies to control the covid -19 pandemic,science of the total Environment ,2020.
([1])Qiang Chen: Unpacking the black box: How to promote citizen engagement through the covid-19 crisis, Computer in human behavior ,2020.
([1])Sungkyu Park, et. al, Risk Communication in Asian Countries: COVID-19 Discourse on Twitter “,14 August 2020,
([1]) Huong Thi Li., et al (2020), Demand for health information on COVID-19 among Vietnamese, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, V (17), N (12), PP 1-12.
([1])Ahmed Samir Abdelhafz, et al, “Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitude of Egyptians Towards the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID‑19)” Journal of Community Health (2020) 45:881–890,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00827-7
([1])Matthew Pittman et.al, Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand Twitter words, Computers in Human Behavior, 2016.
([1]) Ali Erarslan, Instagram as an Education Platform for EFL Learners, TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, July 2019.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics