Study On Public Information Needs In Different Stages Of COVID-19 Epidemic

At the end of 2019,the outbreak of COVID-19 had a serious impact on China’s economy and social order,becoming the most serious public health emergency we have faced since the beginning of the 21st century.In public health emergencies contingency,effective information release is not only beneficial to the related department to make the right decisions in a timely manner and get effective feedback,and help to ease the panic of the public,reduce the risk of public perception,in turn,reduce the risk related to the social,information release,however,depends on their effectiveness and public information demand relatively answered the timeliness and fit.Therefore,this study adopts questionnaire survey,respectively on February 20～25,2020,on March 25～30,and real-time questionnaire investigation on May 20～25,on November 3,2020～13 retrospective questionnaire survey,combined with the literature analysis and statistical analysis of COVID-19 outbreak public information demand characteristics of different stages and the evolution made the preliminary discussion,research mainly includes the following five parts.The first part is to collect the indicators of public information demand and develop a questionnaire.Based on the five dimensions extracted by project analysis and exploratory factor analysis,they were named and explained as "disease aspect,study/work aspect,accommodation aspect,material supply aspect and travel aspect",and the structural equation model was built for verification to form the public information demand scale.The second part is the research on the characteristics of public information needs in different stages of COVID-19 epidemic.The public information needs during the incubation period are mainly for study/work and travel,and the demand level for disease,accommodation and material supply is relatively low.During the outbreak period,the public information demand is mainly in the aspects of material supply and study/work;In the recession period,the information demand of the public is mainly in the aspect of study/work,while the information demand of the other four dimensions is low.Compared with the recession period,the information demand of the public in various dimensions in the recovery and reconstruction period has an upward trend,among which the information demand level of learning/work is still the highest.The third part is the study on the evolution of public information demand during the COVID-19 epidemic.Through comparative analysis of the public information demand data in each stage,it is found that the information demand in learning/work is not affected by the change of the epidemic stage,and always maintains at a high level of demand.The information demand of travel was the lowest in the recession period and remained at a high level in the other three stages.The information needs of diseases,supplies and accommodation are obviously affected by the stages of the epidemic,showing obvious ups and downs in the four stages of the epidemic.The attention is higher in the outbreak period and the recovery and reconstruction period,but lower in the incubation and recession period.The fourth part is a comparative analysis of the public information needs during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.By comparing the real-time and retrospective survey data in different stages,it is found that the public’s retrospective information demand in the outbreak period is lower than that of real-time information demand,and the difference of the information demand degree among the five demand dimensions is reduced.There is no significant difference between the public’s retrospection and real-time information demand in the recession period.Compared with the real-time questionnaire,the average value of the information demand for accommodation in the recovery and reconstruction period is significantly higher in the retrospective questionnaire,while the degree of the information demand in the other four dimensions is slightly lower,and the difference of the information demand degree among the five dimensions is smaller.The fifth part is on the basis of theory and demonstration put forward the relevant departments in the face of public health emergency information release recommendations.The focus of information release should change with the evolution of the epidemic:attention should be paid to information about the disease in the incubation period to ensure that information about the characteristics and development of the disease can be made public in the first time;In the outbreak period,we should pay attention to the information of material supply and give priority to the information of material supply system and material safety.The recession values learning/work information;During the period of restoration and reconstruction,we should pay attention to the diversification of information release content.