Assignment of Media Psychology

 Taqwa Ahmed

 BS part III 

 Assignment of Media Psychology 

 Q# What are the psychological effects of electronic media on viewers in controlling epidemic Corona virus particularly in Pakistan? Elaborate answer with example. 

Right now, the world is battling a coronavirus epidemic. It started in December 2019, when a group of people from China’s northern Hubei province developed an unexplained pneumonia-like condition. It spread over all the country of China like a wild fire and it impacts the health and economy of China and other country too, like Pakistan, India and Russia. Pakistan has decided to close the Chaman border with Afghanistan for at least one week to check the spread of virus from the neighboring country. Strict precautionary measures have also been put in place around borders areas to stop the spread of the virus. Isolation wards have also been made in hospitals. On the Taftan-Iran border, Pakistan has already setup a 100-bed hospital, where people coming from Iran are being screened and quarantined, if needed. As a result, social media became both an indispensable source of vital information and a fertile ground for dangerous rumour-mongering, with claims of equal shock value but varying truth making big waves across the world. The WHO Director-General even stated: “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic.” This situation is the testament to the raw power of social media, and a sign of how much we achieved when it comes to curtailing the spread of dangerous lies online. WHO and other public health organizations also use social media to inform the public about the outbreak, and control the panic. Of course, it doesn’t mean that misinformation is not being circulated among social media users. For many people, conspiracy theories are a natural response to the senseless cruelty of this crisis. They offer clarity and an opportunity to blame someone for the havoc. So it’s not unreasonable that a number of dangerous conspiracy theories ‘blew up’, offering interesting, albeit completely incorrect ways of viewing the situation. Some claim that the virus is a biological weapon, created by either the US (to kill Chinese people) or China (to kill Americans). Some claim that the outbreak was orchestrated by big tech – to undermine China’s status as the world capital of high-tech manufacturing. This will allow us to show how awareness can reduce the number of individuals infected during an epidemic, As coronavirus became a trending topic, many people tried to profit off its popularity in ways that couldn’t have been predicted. Several teen bloggers pretended to be infected to elicit shock from their peers, pity from their online followers, and, most importantly, clicks. Stunts like these cannot be controlled as well as the claims of international conspiracies, but they’re still largely illegal — and the perpetrators are likely to face consequences for their acts of sowing panic on purpose. According to me the psychological impacts on Pakistani in controlling epidemic in Pakistan are: As we talk about the impacts on people who are engaged in surfing social media platforms, then the first thing to notice is that the Epidemic has spread fear among the people because social media is informing us about each and everything like what happened to the people who has Corona and how they die? And what are the symptoms of Corona? These all fears are causing turmoil among they people and softhearted people are not brave enough to read or hear these kind of things so in that way social media is spreading fear among the people in the Epidemic like Corona virus. And the other thing is that social media is also providing us information from all over the world so we are already aware enough to handle this situation. So when the first case in Pakistan was heard, Government of Sindh already tried to isolate the people and whole Pakistan did quarantine themselves in March this year. So this is the positive point of having social media because through this we are one step forward in tackling this situation. As we know that social media is the source of spreading information so people are engaged in forwarding the messages like how to wash your hands and make the environment clean around yourself. And how to manage the situation and how to isolate yourself. This is how social media is helpful in controlling epidemic Corona virus in Pakistan.