How COVID-19 Changed the Information Needs of Italian Citizens

Abstract

Italy was the first European country to be affected by COVID-19, facing an unprecedented situation. The reaction required drastic solutions and highly restrictive measures, which severely tested the trust of the Italian people. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the introduced measures was not only linked to political decisions, but also to the choice of the Italian people to trust and rely on institutions, accepting such necessary measures. In this context, the role of information sources was fundamental, since they strongly influence public opinion. The central focus of this research was to assess the information seeking behavior (ISB) of the Italian citizens, to understand how they related to information and how their specific use of information influenced public opinion. By making use of a survey addressed to 4260 Italian citizens, we identified extraordinarily virtuous behavior in the population: people strongly modified their ISB in order to address the most reliable sources. In particular, we found a very high reliance on scientists, which is particularly striking, if compared to the past. Moreover, starting from the survey results, we used social simulation to estimate the evolution of public opinion. Comparing the ISB during and before COVID-19, we discovered that the shift in the ISB, during the pandemic, may have actually positively influenced public opinion, facilitating the acceptance of the costly restrictions introduced.

Your Call Is Important to Us: COVID-19 and Trends in Public Health Unit Call Service Utilization

“…Overall, general practitioners (and community clinicians) made the greatest number of logged calls to the MNPHU. Based on results from early international studies [7][8][9] , it was anticipated that members of the public would constitute the largest contributors to PHU phone service utilization; however, this was not observed in the data.…”

“…7,8 A study in Italy suggested that COVID-19 has correlated with a shift in ISB that resulted in increased uptake of, and trust in, official sources of information versus nonofficial sources compared to before the pandemic. 9 A broader review of ISB in Italy via analysis of Google search trends identified that health-related searches predominantly pertained to masks, disinfectants, symptoms, and vaccinations. 10 Studies conducted in China suggest that ISB including digital media uptake and frequent engagement with government sources, and possessing accurate risk perception were associated with increased uptake of preventative behavior practices.…”

New Normal Policy: Promosi Kebijakan Pariwisata Dalam Rangka Percepatan Penanganan Dampak Covid-19

“…Covid 19 memunculkan ketidakpastian dan perubahan yang sangat konstan sehingga kebutuhan informasi menjadi sangat penting. Informasi yang dimaksud tidak hanya dari sisi kuantitas namun juga dari sisi kualitas (Falcone & Sapienza, 2020). Kebijakan pemerintah yang diubah karena covid-19, harus segera diinformasikan kepada masyarakat dan pemangku kepentingan.…”

“…Kebijakan pemerintah yang diubah karena covid-19, harus segera diinformasikan kepada masyarakat dan pemangku kepentingan. Informasi tersebut dapat memberi rasa aman bagi masyarakat dalam hal perlindungan dari virus, penghentian penyebarannya (Gorfinkel et al, 2020) dan memungkinkan untuk membuat kondisi lebih dapat diprediksi (Falcone & Sapienza, 2020).…”

“…Informasi yang disampaikan dengan cepat tersebut, dapat menghindari trust gap masyarakat terhadap pemerintah. Bagaimana masyarakat menggunakan informasi dan menjadi faham, adalah peluang media bagi pemerintah untuk mempromosikan kebijakan secara lebih luas dan lebih seimbang (Falcone & Sapienza, 2020), sehingga selanjutnya pemerintah dapat mempromosikan citra destinasi dengan efektif (de las Heras-Pedrosa et al, 2020).…”