College students’ perceptions of COVID-19 conversations on social media

Abstract

Objective: This project assessed college students’ perceptions of social media conversations about COVID-19 in the United States. Participants: A total of 110 college students completed an online survey (N = 110) over two periods of time: April 2020 (n = 60) and September 2020 (n = 50). Method: Measurements included students’ perceptions of sentiment, risk, blame, outrage, and opinion/behavioral intention. Results: Survey results showed that college students’ attitudes and perceptions of these concepts on social media varied from April to September with negative sentiment, concern, uncertainty, and risk perception decreasing over time while blame and outrage increased over time. A sample of tweets was also examined for these constructs. Conclusions: This study provides important insight on college students’ perceptions during a public health emergency and how they use social media as a tool for health information.

Keywords:

• College students
• COVID-19
• public health
• risk communication

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States, and received approval from the Institutional Review Board at Marist College.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.