Social Media and COVID-19 News Sharing: Keeping Political Antecedents in Perspective

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has piqued the research interest of medical professionals and social scientists. In social sciences COVID-19 based political campaigns and trends on social media have extended their implications in the domain of political communication. The dissemination of COVID-19 news on social media is widespread, however, the political factors influencing the spread of such news are less discussed. To explore these factors, we evaluated empirical data from 390 social media users in Pakistan by applying PLS-SEM modeling. Snowball sampling was implied to collect the data. Political interest, partisanship, political knowledge, and political efficacy were incorporated as antecedents of COVID-19 news sharing on social media. Major findings show political interest as the most significant antecedent of COVID-19 news sharing followed by political knowledge and partisanship. However, political efficacy did not display any significant influence on participants’ intentions of sharing COVID-19 news via social media. Based on the findings, theoretical and policy implications are suggested. Keywords: Social Media; COVID-19 News Sharing; Political Interest; Partisanship; Political Knowledge; Political Efficacy