The plethora of information and individuals’ perceived feelings during COVID-19 pandemic in Greece

Abstract

Purpose In the digital era individuals are overwhelmed by huge amount of readily available information. The information provided at the time of COVID-19 crisis is increasingly available. The purpose of this paper was to investigate individuals’ perceived feelings due to the plethora of information during COVID-19 pandemic in Greece in Spring 2020. Design/methodology/approach This study was conducted through a Web-based questionnaire survey posted on the Google Forms platform. The questionnaire consisted of closed-ended, seven-point Likert-scale questions. The data collected were subjected to a principal component analysis. The retained principal components (PCs) were subjected to statistical analysis between genders and among age groups and professional status with the nonparametric criteria Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis. Findings Responses by 776 individuals were obtained. Seventeen original variables from the questionnaire were summarized into three PCs that explained the 71.7% of total variance: “affective disorders,” “uncertainty issues and inaccurate information worries” and “satisfaction and optimism.” Participants partly agree that the received amount of information on the disease caused them feelings of uncertainty about the future and worries about relatives’ lives, but also satisfaction with developments in the country. Females seem to experience stronger perceived feelings of “affective disorders” (p < 0.001) and reported higher degree of agreement about “uncertainty issues and inaccurate information worries.” Originality/value The recorded feelings caused by the volume of available information may have forced people accept the necessary precautionary behavioral changes that had contributed to the Greek success in preventing spread of the disease in Spring 2020.

Russo-Ukrainian War and Trust or Mistrust in Information: A Snapshot of Individuals’ Perceptions in Greece

“…There is evidence that in Greece, only 7% of the population believes that the news media are free from political influence (Newman et al 2022). At the time of this survey, Greece is emerging from a decade of severe economic and political crisis, characterised by high levels of polarisation and suspicion of unfair political and economic interference in the mainstream media (Kalogeropoulos et al 2021), as well as the recent COVID-19 health crisis, which left the Greek public with strong feelings of doubt about the veracity of events and significant concerns about the accurate dissemination of information (Skarpa and Garoufallou 2022).…”