Preliminary investigation of individuals as information sources among two language minorities during COVID-19 pandemic in Finland

Abstract

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Chaos, expansion, and contraction: The information worlds of depression patients during theCOVID‐19 pandemic lockdown

“…The isolation people endured during the first and second waves of COVID‐19 has led to concerns about mental health (Ojaranta et al, 2020). One study reported that greater awareness and negative emotional responses to COVID‐19 were associated with greater media consumption (Fernandez et al, 2021).…”

Human information behavior during the Covid-19 health crisis. A literature review

“…Unlike many previously reported studies that often center more on the effects of HIB than actual HIB, in this section the focus is on people, and the research methodologies are diversified (Table 7), offering important insights into HIB during the Covid-19 crisis. Information practices emerge as collaborative or "orchestrated" and interaction in social networks, both online and offline, becomes, not only, an important information source for many, but it also appears to exert a protective function in regulating emotional responses to information about the crisis (Chivers et al, 2020;Ojaranta, Ahmadinia, & Eskola, 2020;Pan, Cui, & Qian, 2020;Tandoc & Lee, 2020). HIB and other behaviors, such as preventive practices and attitude towards vaccines, appear as conditioned and originated by relationships and roles, especially roles within the family and women's roles in sharing information through social networks (Ali, Whitebridge, Jamal, Alsafy, & Atkin, 2020;Montesi, 2020;Ojaranta et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020).…”

“…Information practices emerge as collaborative or "orchestrated" and interaction in social networks, both online and offline, becomes, not only, an important information source for many, but it also appears to exert a protective function in regulating emotional responses to information about the crisis (Chivers et al, 2020;Ojaranta, Ahmadinia, & Eskola, 2020;Pan, Cui, & Qian, 2020;Tandoc & Lee, 2020). HIB and other behaviors, such as preventive practices and attitude towards vaccines, appear as conditioned and originated by relationships and roles, especially roles within the family and women's roles in sharing information through social networks (Ali, Whitebridge, Jamal, Alsafy, & Atkin, 2020;Montesi, 2020;Ojaranta et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020). Groups such as older persons, that may be less visible in massive analysis of web activity, are also given more visibility (Martos & Casarin, 2020).…”

“…Information scanning protects individuals from information that would potentially cause panic or anxiety, according to the authors (Tandoc & Lee, 2020). Working with the notion of individuals as information sources in the Swedish and Persian linguistic minorities of Finland, Ojaranta et al (2020) found that, for both minorities, the main references for obtaining and commenting on information were friendships and family, while women were 50% more active in communicating health information through personal contacts. By contrast, other sources point to a limited use of social media and interpersonal information sources, in favor of official and traditional information sources such as public broadcasters (Dreisiebner et al, 2021;Soroya et al, 2021).…”

“…Conversely, some of the reviewed studies document the enriching possibilities of exploiting experiential knowledge for symptoms detection, for making predictions about subsequent events, or even for making up for the unavailability of healthcare services (Sarker et al, 2020;Shen, Chen, Luo, et al, 2020;Zhao, Fan, et al, 2020). However, results about preferred information sources are conflicting, since in some studies, social interaction is preferred for obtaining valuable information, and in others it is mainstream media and information from government that is more highly valued (Chivers et al, 2020;Dreisiebner et al, 2021;Martos & Casarin, 2020;Ojaranta et al, 2020;Soroya et al, 2021;Tandoc & Lee, 2020). Significantly, more qualitative research returns a higher consideration for information from personal contacts and experiential knowledge and it acquires a protective power against the alarmism of mainstream media, guaranteeing appropriate access to filtered information (Chivers et al, 2020;Tandoc & Lee, 2020).…”