SOCIAL MEDIA AS MEDIATOR IN CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND REPUTATION MANAGEMENT DURING MALAYSIA’S COVID-19 PANDEMIC
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v5i5.431Keywords:
social media, mediating factors, crisis communication, reputation management, MalaysiaAbstract
Crisis communication played a crucial role in Malaysia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, bridging public health and political discourse. Media competition intensified, shaping public perception through various social media strategies. This led to diverse political leanings and impacts on public understanding, sometimes causing pandemic-related misunderstandings. Despite this, the pandemic also fueled an "infodemic," spreading misinformation and overshadowing factual content. Thus, the study's main aims are to analyse the role of social media as the mediating factors on crises communication and reputation management. The quantitative method will be used to achieve the study's purpose by using a proportionate stratified random sampling technique and distributing the survey to 400 Malaysians. The mean analysis on social media is 3.35. The mediation analysis valuing p=0.92, p=0.91, p=0.89, p=0.89, p=0.87, p=0.77, p=0.77, p=0.76, p=0.73, p=0.69, p=0.44, p=0.43, p=0.30, p=0.23, p=0.09. These research findings indicate that the indirect effect hypotheses are not supported. In this critical situation, crisis communication strategies may have a more direct impact, not always relying on media. Social media's role in shaping public perception could be less important compared to government actions, personal experiences, and traditional media. The complexity of crises like COVID-19 involves many variables and stakeholders, which might lessen the impact of social media. The effectiveness of policies could be more influential than how they're communicated through social media. Varying levels of media literacy and how people consume information on social media could weaken the effects, leading to inconsistent results in studies.
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