| Abstract: |
Government campaigns on social media have become indispensable in mitigating
public health crises and building public confidence amid disease outbreaks. This
paper looks at government social media communications concerning the general
well-being, exploring public perceptions of communication from Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) messaging within Lagos State. The study
employed the descriptive documentary research design methodology and relied on
secondary sources gathered from scholarly journals, textbooks, NCDC reports, and
publications by WHO, UNICEF, relevant government policy documents and other
available literary works. Result reveals that social media campaigns by the NCDC
were largely able to improve public awareness due to provision of information
relating to disease transmission symptoms, modes of prevention and treatment,
reporting mechanisms and health advisories within a short span. The quality of
messages, reliability, comprehensiveness and transparency contribute to their
effectiveness in fostering public trust, while misinformation, divergent views, high
content flow (overload), tardiness in responses and lack of confidence in institution
cause mistrust. Government's social media engagement in Public health crisis
communication should however be dynamic, transparent, time-sensitive, and sensitive to the target public (audience driven). |
