Media & information seeking behaviour among Malaysians during the pandemic: findings from three studies 2020-2021

• Main Authors: Syed Abdullah Idid, Syed Arabi, Souket, Rizwanah
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: P87 Communication. Mass media
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/95686/1/EUPRERA%20call-for-papers-v12.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/95686/2/EUPRERA%20%20Media%20%26%20information%20seeking%20behaviour%20among%20Malaysians.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/95686/3/EUPRERA%20programme%20details.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/95686/

The pandemic of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought about an unprecedented war in Malaysia. Besides struggling with the effect of the pandemic, the country was also caught in a political turmoil. Managing information and establishing public confidence and trust has ever since been significant for the Malaysian authorities. The first wave of the pandemic in the country started in late January involving 22 cases, the second wave involved more cases in February triggered by a religious gathering and the third phase was prompted by the political activities in the country with the Sabah elections in September. In an effort to mitigate the outbreak, several response actions and control measures have been employed by the Malaysian authorities. The effectiveness of these actions was highly dependent on the Government communication strategies and the corporation and compliance of the Malaysian people. Three nationwide online surveys were conducted from July 2020 to March 2021. Participant demographics, media use, trust on information sources, risk factors and concerns surrounding COVID-19 are assessed. The study will also look at the pandemic effect on the optimism level of the people.