دور الإعلام في مواجهة الأوبئة والأمراض المعدية: وباء فيروس كورونا نموذجًا

Abstract

This study looked at the role of the media in facing pandemics and infectious diseases, in particular the Coronavirus pandemic as a model. It aimed to clarify the importance of health media and its role in promoting awareness of how to prevent pandemics and infectious diseases and to identify rumours related to the Coronavirus pandemic and look into their trends. The study included the views of a number of specialists, researchers, writers, and media professionals on how the media dealt with the Corona pandemic, how it presented it, and its role in raising awareness of ways to prevent it during the period of the pandemic’s spread until the end of May 2020. The researcher used the exploratory approach to conduct the study.

     The study arrived at a number of results, the most important of which is that the public have more confidence in traditional media than social media during crises; this is what the study showed in the Corona pandemic crisis. The study clarified that some Arab and international governments do not deal clearly and transparently with the media in times of crisis and that they took the Corona pandemic as an excuse to tighten their control over the media. The study also showed that the media contributed to spreading health awareness of the methods of preventing Corona and opened the way for exchanging opinions between specialists on the best ways to prevent and deal with it.