The first quarter of 2020 is a hard time for the global community. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemics swept through the world affected many aspects of human endeavour: from the decline in industrial production to the re-adjustments in the academic calendar of all educational institutions globally. Stakeholders and management of higher educational institutions have no other option but to make use of internet technology, thus online learning for the continuation of academic activities across all schools worldwide.This paper aims at assessing whether Ghanaian international students in China are satisfied with the '' mass'' online learning in higher educational institutions in Beijing, China.Therefore, this study employed an online survey to investigate the level of satisfaction of online learning in higher educational institutions and how Ghanaian international students are coping with these ''new initiatives''.The findings from the study suggest that the implementation of online learning programs was a very great idea as the majority of the sampled students supported the initiative. The study also revealed that students have adequate knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another finding that came up during the research is the high cost of participating in online learning. However, our results showed that students outside China due to the COVID-19 spend so much money to buy internet data for online learning. Last but not least, the study discovered that internet connectivity was very slow for students leaving within the dormitories of various universities in China.The findings from this study will be of much benefit to university administrators and management in taking future emergency decisions concerning the implementation of online learning programs for student's different backgrounds.

The activities of the anti-vaccine crusaders and conspiracy theorists on social media platforms have influenced billions of people across the globe on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines currently been used for immunizations. The increased social media mis/disinformation on the efficacies and safety of these vaccines developed have raised a global concern among all stakeholders. This study adopted a convenience sampling through an online survey to collect data from N=1800 participants (students) from five (5) public universities in Accra the national capital of Ghana, which is also the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine their perceptions on the overabundance COVID-19 pandemic information on social media and how these pieces information consumption impacts their trust/mistrust/distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines. The findings of our study indicate that there exist vital levels of COVID-19 vaccines "infodemic" on social media and these overabundances of COVID-19 vaccine information on social media has caused great levels of fear and panic among the students and the public. We also found that, the high exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media are associated with negative perceptions and higher levels of mistrust/distrust among the population. This study recommends that stakeholders such as WHO, policymakers, and accredited health institutions must embark on public health communication campaigns to educate the public on the credible sources of COVID-19 pandemic information on social media.

Ghana has deployed high-speed technology and digital initiatives for the daily management of all the sectors of the country under the theme ‘’Ghana Go Digital Agenda’’ policy initiative. These digital governance initiatives include the electronic or digital-health care systems, e-justice system paperless clearing of goods at port-banking, and other online services. Paramount among the many digital initiatives is the introduction of drones for emergency digital health delivery. Access to medical supplies in Ghana has been hindered by the difficulty of getting the supplies from the central points to other areas that are remotely located to enable the patients who need the services to get them. To overcome this challenge and deliver affordable and accessible health care services to the Ghanaian populace, the Government of Ghana engaged a US-based company Zipline Technology to use Drones in the supply of medical supplies for emergencies and hard-to-reach areas of the country. Since the introduction of this initiative in 2019, it has attracted mix-reactions from various stakeholders on the relevance of the drone technology project on health delivery in Ghana. This study used the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess drone technology’s impact on Ghana’s emergency health delivery system. The study utilized an online survey questionnaire to solicit data from participants. From the hundred (100) health facilities, located within the operational zone of the drone, twenty (20) were purposively sampled. Out of 550 questionnaires distributed, a total of 533 health workers (participants) validly responded to the online questionnaire. One key finding of our study indicates that the introduction of drone technology for medical supplies in Ghana has significantly impacted positively on the emergency health delivery system in Ghana.

Since mid-March 2020, educational systems worldwide and particularly Ghana were under increasing pressure to use the new Digital Technologies (DTs) and mobile applications (apps) to assist teachers in guiding students to continue with online learning activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is aimed at assessing the utilization of DTs and apps tools by students during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those technologies have affected online learning in institutions of higher education in Ghana. The researcher adopted an online survey and exploratory-based design that utilized quantitative and qualitative approaches to purposively collect data from N=784 students from three major public universities in Ghana. Also, the study applied Uses and Gratification as the theoretical basis in understanding the utilization of DTs and their possible limitations for remote learning during the peak of COVID-19 in Ghana. This study reported that the specific DMTs and mobile apps used by students in higher education for online learning are smarts phones and apps such as Class In, Zoom, Skype, and Instagram live stream. This study also revealed that Personal Learning Network (PLN) such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter were also actively used by students for remote online learning. Again, the study shows that 77.1% of students in the sampled three universities were fully aware of the DTs and apps utilized for online learning during COVID-19. Also, the findings from this study report that students in higher institutions identified unstable electricity for continuous online learning, especially for those students in rural areas, unreliable internet service, poor WiFi connections, expensive smartphones / laptops, and high cost of inter bundle as key challenges of using DMTs and mobile apps for online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, on the perceived usefulness of DTs and mobile apps among students for online learning in higher educational institutions, the findings from this study suggest that DMT’s and apps were of great benefit to students for remote online learning.

The 21st century is best described by many as the Digital Age. The digital revolution at the beginning of the century has witnessed the introduction of social media platforms. About two decades now, globally, the are several questions on the effects of social media on the new production. While a section of media and communication experts view that social media has positively promoted news production, other scholars strongly see the negative side of social media in news production, especially with the context of the propaganda model. The objective of this article is to offer insightful review literature on the effects of social media on news production, within the context of the propaganda model to improve the reader’s understanding of the role of social media news production. The review is divided into two sections; the first part gives us much insight into what the propaganda model is all about, and the second section critically looks at the net effects of social media in news making via the propaganda model.

Social media has drastically changed the communication perspective of the world through different aspects, both positively and negatively. The existence of social media has made it easy for scholars and non-scholars to pass information in the form of communication as well as has boosted businesses through online advertising and selling. Social media is enhanced by different aspects and forms of technology hence it is safe to say the two go hand in hand in depicting a social and now our academic world. Social media and Institutions of Higher Education work together to explore different skills including critical thinking, collaborations, and knowledge construction. This means that students, lecturers, and professors benefit differently from social media. For instance, in certain countries, social media is accepted as a tool for teaching and learning. Ideally, through social media, one is able to attend online classes without necessarily appearing physically at the lecture hall. In a country like Ghana, social media has paved ways to very many teachers and students in higher educational institutions who have benefited differently. This paper focuses on a literature review of social media utilization by students in higher educational institutions in Ghana. Other concepts of social media will also be explored including the positive and negative effects of social media on students and professors in tertiary education. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature by logically analyzing the utilization of the social media by students in the higher education institutions in Ghana. Therefore, it documents how the social media tools can be used to promote teaching and learning as a well as its effects on education across the globe. 1. INTRODUCTION Education is considered a basic need across the world and is part of every country"s development agenda. In Ghana, education is considered the back born of the economy and its resources. According to Pinto (2019) the socioeconomic growth of Ghana and Africa as a whole is linked to the consistency in its education factors. For instance, the financial, economic, political and religious factors of the nation are advanced and improved due to the quality of education. With education, all these factors are put into place hence able to work effectively. This is explained such that the right to education is a basic right, applauded worldwide. Through such provision of quality accessible education, living standards of people are improved and the nation is turned into a working nation hence developing in every aspect. There is an African saying that states ""when you educate a child, you empower the whole generation"". This is basically how education is interpreted in Ghana (Republic of Ghana, 2013). Social media technology is considered among efforts combined in achieving quality education in Ghana. Different stakeholders

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Video and audio fake news formats distributed on Facebook in the form of dis/misinformation have caused so much fear, and panic, and received unpleasant reactions among users. This study adopted a comparative experimental design to test the hypotheses by varying the valence, thus types of formats or modalities, the educational levels, credibility, and sharing intentions of the participants, thus, 2 (video vs audio formats) ×2 (credibility vs sharing intentions) × 2 (literate vs. illiterate) to predict the specific media format(s) that influence the spread of fake news on Facebook among users in Ghana. The participants (N = 340) for this study were recruited from the three municipalities in Accra the national capital of Ghana. The research design regarding data sources was carried out in the form of a street intercept survey method. The findings show that users of Facebook believed and shared video formatted fake news than audio formatted. Further analyses indicate that the educational levels (literacy and illiteracy) variables that influence the spread of fake news on Facebook were not consistent. Besides, an in-depth theoretical explanation for modality effects when viewed from the perspective of mobile media, the study has proposed some theoretical and practical implications.