By: Toni Ramadan ( Blogger / Communication Science Student, Jayabaya University )
The war against Corona requires the role of all elements of the nation. This war should not be put entirely on the shoulders of the government and medical personnel. The general public, religious groups, and a number of other civil organizations also have roles and responsibilities in fighting this pandemic virus.
One of the roles of the general public in fighting Corona is to carry out physical distancing (keep physical distance) when in public spaces. It is also important for the community to avoid crowds, and reduce physical interaction with one another.
In short, the safest thing to do right now is stay at home , which is meant by studying, working, and worshiping at home.
However, physical distancing does not necessarily mean withdrawing from the social environment. In the midst of such a massive Corona pandemic outbreak , it is necessary for us to re-tie the bonds of social solidarity. Physically, we are indeed required to reduce various interactions, but the bond of social solidarity must be strengthened.
Ironically, when people switch physical interactions into online -based interactions , various channels in the social media mass lines such as Facebook, Twitter , Instagram , WhatsApp , and so on, are actually flooded with information that tends to be unsettling.
If it is simply observed, the information that is troubling about Corona circulating in the social media mass line can be classified at least into two:
First, information that is actually factual but is overgrown by narratives aimed at creating unrest in the community. The ultimate goal, only to create pessimism in the community as well as efforts to delegitimize the performance of the government in tackling the Corona virus pandemic .
Second, hoax news that was deliberately spread to create confusion of information about Corona . This type of hoax around Corona is very much circulating in the mass media social lines with various perspectives, ranging from the perspectives of health, economics, politics to religion.
In the midst of the battle against the Corona virus today, it is very difficult to imagine that Indonesia will win the battle if our psychological condition is weak due to the disturbing invasion of information.
Therefore, the easiest step that can be taken by the public at this time is to do social media distancing , which is to select information about Corona to be read and then distributed. The aim is to maintain optimism and sanity of information related to this pandemic virus.
The next step that is no less important is to spread positive information about Corona . In this case, the community must jointly flood the social media mass lines with information that breeds optimism rather than pessimism.
For this reason, information about optimism in the fight against the Corona pandemic must be more massive disseminated on social media than hoax information about Corona, which only has the potential to cause misperception and even social chaos in the public.
Positive Propaganda Movement
One of the roles that people can play in the war against the Corona pandemic is to become a positive propaganda agent. Definitively, propaganda can be understood as a systematic effort aimed at changing the attitudes, views and behavior of certain groups of people.
Positive propaganda can build an attitude of optimism while strengthening the bonds of social solidarity in society. Positive propaganda is carried out systematically, measured and directed and uses sources and references that can be verified. That way, positive propaganda always tries to enlighten the public on certain issues.
In the context of the Corona pandemic , the general public can become a driving agent of a positive propaganda movement, namely by making mass-channel channels on social media as a means to spread educational content around the Corona pandemic . Community interaction on social media should ideally be dominated by enlightening conversation content, not actually disturbing.
By sharing the good news or story inspiring in the middle of a pandemic Corona would be much more useful than information sharing hoaks that will only worsen Susana in public.
