Study On Public Risk Information Seeking Behaviors Under COVID-19

COVID-19 is a significant public health emergency with rapid transmission,wide infection range and great difficulties in prevention and control.It is characterized by global development,comprehensive impact,severity of severity,long duration and great uncertainty.Only by understanding how the public views the risks they faced,the characteristics of their risk information seeking behaviors and the influencing factors,the relevant government departments and expert groups can carry out more targeted risk communication strategies,and improving the risk response mechanism,so as to better deal with the possible public emergencies in the future.In this paper,the risk perception,the characteristics of risk information seeking behaviors and influencing factors of the public under the COVID-19 were explored by using the method of questionnaire survey combined with interview.Specifically,questionnaires were used to understand the public's epidemic risk information demand types and information acquisition methods.Meanwhile,scales were used to measure the public epidemic risk perception and the characteristics of risk information seeking behaviors,as well as the influencing factors of various behaviors.Regression analysis and mediating effect test were carried out on the obtained data to exploring the influence path of public epidemic risk information seeking behaviors.Combined with the qualitative interview content,the quantitative data analysis results are explained and discussed,and targeted risk information dissemination strategies are proposed.It was found that the public's perceived severity of the epidemic was the highest dimension,followed by perceived susceptibility,and finally was risk controllability.The experience of being centrally quarantined and where people lived during the epidemic led to significant differences in people's risk perception.The epidemic information content that the public pays the most attention to is "real-time epidemic data";Social media and television were the most common channels for people to obtain risk information.Individuals' self-efficacy,health anxiety,media trust,and social support all had significant positive effects on their risk information seeking behaviors,while epidemic risk perception had significant negative effects on their risk information seeking behaviors.Health anxiety,media trust,social support and risk-seeking behaviors were partly mediated by risk perception factors.Based on the questionnaire investigation results and the interview content,this paper also discussed the reason about individual risk perception differences,then putting forward the risk information of public emergency communication strategies,including optimize the basic risk information dissemination way,attaching great importance to the role of the mainstream media authority,strengthen the governance of social information platform,ascending personal information literacy and digital viability.