Han Zhengguang’s Problem Solution essay

With the rapid advancement of technology in our modern era, internet and social media had become a very integral part of our life. Internet and social media provided us with faster information exchange making it easier to spread news and information around the world. Accompanying the habit of people sharing news on their social media websites, it has made social media one of main sources of world news for the internet savvy. However with the ease of news sharing and lack of regulation, there is a stark increase of news spreading throughout social media regardless of the truthfulness of it. False news would then give rise to false information which is detrimental to the society and in some cases causing social and economic loss to the country.

The spread of false information of the Ebola virus in the United States of is a great illustration of the negative effects of social media. In most cases, the rumours of the Ebola virus are widely exaggerated such as its death rate being an astounding 90 percent (McLysaght, 2014). All these rumours have caused an irrational fear of the virus, leading to social and economic losses which are caused mainly by the fear of the virus and not the virus itself (Marcelo, 2014). To address this problem, the White House and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have attempted to educate the public of the true nature of Ebola by releasing public statements on mass media such as the news and the newspapers (Edelman 2014). However, the CDC and White House efforts to calm the fears by announcing public statements on the news are not as effective. These efforts do not target the ill-informed people who usually do not watch the news in the first place.

 Due to the ineffectiveness of the current solution, a better solution would be for the government to conduct a viral campaign on social media platforms to target these social media savvy people. Another solution would be to have seminars in schools and public places such as shopping malls.

The first solution, which is to conduct viral campaigns on social media sites, is to target and educate these social media savvy people who are spreading the false rumours in the first place. One way is to create a very interesting video featuring some of the popular artistes from the music industry talking about the true nature of the Ebola virus. A very good example of a viral campaign can be seen from Singapore’s ‘Sar-Vivor Rap’. It is a song performed by the iconic Singapore drama character Pua Chu Kang played by Gurmit Singh in 2003. The ‘Sar-Vivor Rap’ managed to squeeze all the important information about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus which was a cause of worry in Singapore at that time into a 4 minute rap. Being humorous and catchy, the song became an internet sensation and a common topic of discussion in Singapore in a short span of time. Through this example we could see the effects of a social media viral campaign, and which at that time was more effective than any public announcement the Singapore government could give. This confirms the practicality of such a campaign.

Another solution would be to have seminars in schools and public places such as shopping malls around the country by health officials. The students and the shoppers would less likely leave half way through the seminar. This enables the officials to bring across their point, informing the students and shoppers about the true nature of the virus. Another benefit of this arrangement is that the students and shoppers could ask questions on the virus, thus debunking the many speculations and rumours surrounding the virus once and for all. When the students and the members of the community centres return home, they educate their families regarding the information they gathered earlier. By doing so the seminar would be able to reach out to a wider audience other than just the students or the shoppers, making it an economical solution to the problem.

In conclusion, the problem faced by the White House and the CDC looks tough because the rumours are spreading like wild fire on the social media platforms fuelling the fear caused by the virus. However, by taking on some unorthodox methods such as conducting a viral social media campaign to spread the correct information and having seminars in schools and community centres, the CDC and the White House could disperse the vast amount of speculations and rumours that surround the virus. This would reduce the social and economic losses caused by the Ebola virus due to fear, by showing the public that the Ebola virus is not as fearful as described in the rumours.

Reference

Mulvey, J. (2015). Why Fear Spreads Faster Than Facts on Social Media. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://blog.hootsuite.com/citizen-engagement-crisis-management-on-social-media/

Edelman, A. (2014). White House, health officials try to calm a terrified public over Ebola outbreak fears. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/white-house-health-officials-calm-terrified-public-ebola-outbreak-fears-article-1.1963948

World Health Organisation. (n.d.). Health sheet on the Ebola virus. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

McLysaght. (2014) Ebola: Misinformation can spread like virus. Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/ebola-misinformation-can-spread-like-virus-285367.html