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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.7, No.7
Publication Date: July 25, 2020
DOI:10.14738/assrj.77.8763.
Fadillah, M., Liberty, I. A., & Nadiah, L. (2020). WhatsAppTM Seminar as Hoax Buster and Health Promotion Medium of COVID-19: A Field
Trial. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 910-917.
WhatsAppTM Seminar as Hoax Buster and Health Promotion Medium
of COVID-19: A Field Trial
Mariatul Fadillah
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University,
Palembang City, South Sumatera, Indonesia.
Iche Andriani Liberty
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University,
Palembang City, South Sumatera, Indonesia.
Lathifah Nadiah
Medical Doctor Professional Study Program,
Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University
Palembang City, South Sumatera, Indonesia.
ABSTRACT
Accurate information and guidance on protective measures that can
reduce the level of exposure to acute respiratory coronavirus 2
syndrome (SARS-CoV2) is the most important component in controlling
the spread of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). As one of the largest social
media in Indonesia, WhatsAppTM is a messaging service that is very
close to the lives of Indonesian people, especially in the countryside. At
the time of this research, no studies were published about using
WhatsappTM as an Online Media used for the Seminar. This study aims
to meet this information need and test its effectiveness as a health
promotion medium, specifically Covid-19. The online seminar was
conducted using WhatsAppTM media in the period 20 April 2020 - 30
April 2020. It was conducted 33 times in 33 groups, where each group
was attended by an average of 176 participants, for 715 minutes and
724 questions. These groups present competent experts in their fields,
and question and answer sessions are held between participants and
experts. The results showed that 5,822 people who attended the
seminar gave very positive feedback. The conclusions from the results
of this field test show that WhatsAppTM can be an effective medium in
health promotion to prevent transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia.
Keyword: WhatsAppTM, promotion, hoax, COVID-19, prevention.
INTRODUCTION
Several cases of pneumonia with unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan, China in December
2019.1 The rate of this new pneumonia cases is getting higher every day in China, with an increasing
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.7, Issue 7, July-2020
number of new cases every day at the end of January 2020 averaging 1,939 cases.2 World Health
Organization (WHO) finally declared that this outbreak became the world's main concern.3
Eventually, the disease was officially named by WHO on February 11, 2020 as coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) with an etiology in the form of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
virus (SARS- CoV-2).4 The disease continues to grow massively and WHO finally declared it as a
pandemic at March 11, 2020.5
Countries continue to carry out mass screening to ascertain the number of cases in their country
and the status of their local transmission. Examination of COVID-19 disease in Indonesia itself is still
quite low, which naturally results in inaccuracies in the number of cases as a transmission rate in
Indonesia.6 In addition, there are no proven treatment and specific prevention available for tackling
this disease.7 This higher estimated-transmission rate than the current reports while no possible
cure to this disease would certainly cause the health care system to become overwhelmed.3
Therefore, some efforts are needed to effectively break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.
One of the most important aspects of an effective effort to minimize COVID-19 transmission is
accurate information conveyed in media that is understood by the public. Google shows a significant
increase in the search for the word "COVID-19" since early February 2020, which means there was
a rise in COVID-19 related interest.8 It might bring lights into the situations, but as WHO stated this
surge of information as “infodemic”, it could also bring detrimental effect to the society.9 To combat
this, WHO has routinely uploaded content on various social media that contains COVID-19
information from reliable sources.10 In Indonesia itself, Gugus Percepatan Penanganan COVID-19
that was established on March 13, 2020 has launched the "Hoax Buster" feature to deal with
disinformation and misinformation circulating in the community.11 Indonesia’s Ministry of Health
has also launched Infeksi Emerging, as the latest official information media on emerging infectious
diseases, including COVID-19.12
Indonesia has a lot of its people reside in rural areas, working in informal sectors with various
educational background. They are widely spread throughout the archipelago. The communication
facilities in this area is not very well-established, that the internet connection is not supporting
some media such as video and pictures to be accessed by the public. The form of two-way
communication is also limited in these areas, that they barely support video calls or conferences.
Therefore, the availability of health promotion media is sparse in these areas. As a result, there is a
high potential for misinformation and disinformation that spreads throughout the community,
especially in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.13,14
As one of the largest social media in Indonesia, WhatsAppTM is a messaging application owned by
FacebookTM that are often used by the public to obtain and disseminate various information,
including regarding COVID-19.15 Furthermore, WhatsApp is used in various walks of life in
Indonesia, especially in rural areas that has limited resources in terms of online communications.
WhatsApp is also flexible that it can store the information for quite long time. People can access it
whenever they want, despite the tight schedule they might have. Therefore, WhatsApp is a media
that is very close to the lives of Indonesian people. Unfortunately, with this all primacies, WhatsApp
is often used as a place to spread misinformation and hoaxes that can cause negative impacts on the
subsequent handling of COVID-19.16
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Fadillah, M., Liberty, I. A., & Nadiah, L. (2020). WhatsAppTM Seminar as Hoax Buster and Health Promotion Medium of COVID-19: A Field Trial. Advances in
Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 910-917.
Communication Partner On Uptake Of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Among Married Men In Kenya: An Evaluation Study Of Information Source
Attributes. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 7(7) 825-842.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.77.8763 912
This causes the need for accurate information dissemination via WhatsApp that can promote
preventative measurements and also combat the hoaxes that disturbed the COVID-19 handling. In
addition, we have not found any research especially in the field of public health that looks at this
phenomenon further. Therefore, this study aims to meet the information needs and see the
effectiveness of this method as a promotional media through field trial.
METHODS
Online seminars were carried out by the Division of Public Health-Community Medicine (IKM-IKK),
Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University. This online seminar used WhatsAppTM media and was held
in the period of April 20, 2020 - April 30, 2020. Online seminar was conducted 33 times in 33 groups,
where each group was attended by 100 participants. All groups have their respective moderators
who are interns of the IKM-IKK Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University. This WhatsAppTM group
featured experts who are lecturers of IKM-IKK Faculty of Medicine, Sriwijaya University, and also
Members of the Indonesian Family Medicine College.
When the seminar started, a document containing basic information about COVID-19 was given to
the participants which can be accessed through each participant's cellphone. After that, participants
were invited to ask the experts either directly in the group or through a private message to the
moderator. The expert answered the questions from participants through the voice note feature.
Then after the question and answer session, participants will be given a closing statement and take- home message, and also participants will be asked for feedback about the organization and the
content delivered at the seminar.
These groups will be analyzed in the seminar process and discussion. The number of participants,
the duration, and the number of questions entered will be analyzed descriptively. Feedback from
participants will be analyzed qualitatively.
RESULTS
This online seminar used WhatsAppTM media and was held in the period of April 20, 2020 – April 30,
2020. The total number of participants were 5,822 people. Online seminars were conducted 33
times in 33 groups, with an average number of participants of around 170 people in each group,
past the initial target of around 100 people. The enthusiasm of the community in participating in
the seminar was quite high, marked by the time of the seminar which was on average more than the
allotted time (1 hour). This was due to the many questions that come in (649 questions in total) and
the huge community curiosity about the prevention of COVID-19, especially related to preventive
measurements that can be carried out by themselves independently.