ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
As the globe enters a new decade, the global society is confronted with the formidable COVID-19 pandemic, a widespread outbreak of the coronavirus disease. To expeditiously disseminate pandemic response measures and news to the public, news media organisations are increasingly relying on social media platforms like Facebook. The demographic of social media users primarily consists of students, who are susceptible to the impact of news circulated through social media platforms. Whether social media users, specifically postgraduate students on Facebook, see the network as a credible source of COVID-19 information holds significant importance. Therefore, this research aims to fill the research gap by focusing on three main objectives, which are to explore the perceptions of postgraduate students towards Facebook characteristics as a reliable source for COVID-19 news, to describe the usage of Facebook as a news source for COVID-19 affects the perception of postgraduate students and to explain the perception of postgraduate towards the challenges of Facebook as a reliable source for COVID-19 news. A qualitative methodology was adopted, and in-depth interviews were conducted to gather data throughout the research process. The data collected from the interview was subjected to thematic analysis, namely Braun and Clark's thematic analysis, to facilitate the analysis and interpretation of the data. In summary, this research elucidates the perspectives of postgraduate students on the reliability of Facebook as a news source, focusing on the platform's usage patterns, distinctive characteristics, and associated challenges. This study demonstrated that social media platforms such as Facebook are reliable in disseminating reliable COVID-19-related news and information.
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