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Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media

MISDOOM 2022: Disinformation in Open Online Media pp 44–62Cite as

Digital Information Seeking and Sharing Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13545 ))

Abstract

Studies on digital interaction in emergent users’ population are rare. We analyse the electronic data generated by users from Pakistan on Google Search Engine and WhatsApp to understand their information-seeking behaviour during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. We study how the Pakistani public developed their understanding about the disease, (its origin, cures, and preventive measures to name a few) through digital media. Understanding this information seeking behaviour will allow corrective actions to be taken by health policymakers to better inform the public in future health crises through electronic media, as well as the digital media platforms and search engines to address misinformation among the users in the emergent markets.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://p.dw.com/p/3eeAj.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Asthma and Allergy Institute Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Mehk Fatima, Aimal Rextin & Osman Yusuf

  2. University of Chenab, Gujrat, Pakistan

    Mehk Fatima

  3. The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

    Mehwish Nasim

  4. Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Mehwish Nasim

  5. National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Aimal Rextin

  6. The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Mehwish Nasim

Authors
  1. Mehk Fatima
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  2. Aimal Rextin
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  3. Mehwish Nasim
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  4. Osman Yusuf
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mehwish Nasim .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA

    Francesca Spezzano

  2. Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, Brazil

    Adriana Amaral

  3. Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Davide Ceolin

  4. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Lisa Fazio

  5. Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA

    Edoardo Serra

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Fatima, M., Rextin, A., Nasim, M., Yusuf, O. (2022). Digital Information Seeking and Sharing Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan. In: Spezzano, F., Amaral, A., Ceolin, D., Fazio, L., Serra, E. (eds) Disinformation in Open Online Media. MISDOOM 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13545 . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18253-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18253-2_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18252-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18253-2

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