Mechanism of WeChat’s Impact on Public Risk Perception During COVID-19

• Main Authors: Zhuang Y (Author), Zhao T (Author), Shao X (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Dove Medical Press, 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

Yue Zhuang, Tiantian Zhao, Xuanrong Shao School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, People's Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Tiantian ZhaoSchool of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, People's Republic of ChinaEmail [e-mail]: Taking COVID-19 as an example, this paper explores the mechanism of WeChat's impact on risk information transmission in social media and builds a model of WeChat's impact on public risk perception based on risk communication.Methods: Research primarily utilised the questionnaire survey method to collect and analyse public attitudes towards COVID-19 to achieve the research goals. We checked the adequacy of measurements and tested the hypotheses with regression analysis based on 801 participants in China.Results: The results indicated that the levels of the public WeChat COVID-19 risk information attention and trust had a significant positive impact on the public's risk perception and willingness of pandemic prevention. The improved public risk perception of COVID-19 as a mediator enhanced the public pandemic prevention ability, which allowed WeChat to play a more effective role in major disaster emergency.Keywords: COVID-19, WeChat, public risk perception, pandemic prevention

Item Description

1179-1594