Social Media and COVID-19 News Sharing: Keeping Political Antecedents in Perspective

Authors

  • Rehan Tariq Government College University, Faisalabad
  • Sobia Shahzad Government College University, Faisalabad
  • Izzal Asnira Zolkepli University Sains Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52567/pjsr.v3i4.164

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has piqued the research interest of medical professionals and social scientists. In social sciences COVID-19 based political campaigns and trends on social media have extended their implications in the domain of political communication. The dissemination of COVID-19 news on social media is widespread, however, the political factors influencing the spread of such news are less discussed. To explore these factors, we evaluated empirical data from 390 social media users in Pakistan by applying PLS-SEM modeling. Snowball sampling was implied to collect the data. Political interest, partisanship, political knowledge, and political efficacy were incorporated as antecedents of COVID-19 news sharing on social media. Major findings show political interest as the most significant antecedent of COVID-19 news sharing followed by political knowledge and partisanship. However, political efficacy did not display any significant influence on participants’ intentions of sharing COVID-19 news via social media. Based on the findings, theoretical and policy implications are suggested.

Keywords: Social Media; COVID-19 News Sharing; Political Interest; Partisanship; Political Knowledge; Political Efficacy

Author Biographies

  • Rehan Tariq, Government College University, Faisalabad

    Lecturer

  • Sobia Shahzad, Government College University, Faisalabad

    Assistant Professor

  • Izzal Asnira Zolkepli , University Sains Malaysia

    Senior Lecturer, School of Mass Communication

Additional Files

Published

2021-12-31

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4 (2021): Pakistan Journal of Social Research (PJSR)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Rehan, Sobia Shahzad, Izzal Asnira Zolkepli Zolkepli

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

How to Cite

[1]
“Social Media and COVID-19 News Sharing: Keeping Political Antecedents in Perspective”, Pak. J, Soc. Sci., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 354–367, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.52567/pjsr.v3i4.164.