The Saudi public's reliance on open sources to obtain information about the Corona pandemic mutant, Omicron

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Electronic Publishing, Alamam University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study aimed to reveal the degree of dependence of the Saudi public on open sources in obtaining information about the Omicron mutator, the reasons for accreditation, the level of confidence in them as information sources, and the resulting effects of accreditation. In the application, it relied on the survey method, through the use of an electronic questionnaire to survey the opinions of a sample of the Saudi public, consisting of 500 individuals, distributed over five emirates representing the five geographical regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study reached a set of results, most notably:
- Two-thirds of the study sample depended on open sources to obtain information about the omicron mutant, to a high and medium degree.
- The Twitter platform ranked first among the open sources that respondents rely on to obtain information about the Omicron mutator, followed by Snapchat, then Instagram.
- The study supported the assumption of the theory of dependence on the media, as the results confirmed the agreement of the respondents with a high degree that the public's dependence on open sources increases as their need for information increases.
- The majority of respondents interact with news obtained from open sources to a high and medium degree.
- Respondents agreed with a high degree that open sources have an important role in guiding and addressing issues and motivating the public to pay attention to them.
- Confidence in open source coverage of the omicron mutant crisis is still lower than confidence in traditional sources coverage of the same crisis.
 

Keywords

References

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