Institute of Communication Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jul 29;19(15):9321. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159321.
By adopting niche theory, this study compared social media with news media and interpersonal communication regarding their capabilities in satisfying people's information needs of daily use, surveillance, convenience, and information quality during the outbreak of COVID-19. Two methods were adopted to collect data for this study: the first was to conduct 20 intensive interviews, and the second was to administer an online survey by contracting a professional polling company with a panel of 8.8 million members. The stratified random sampling method was used to acquire a representative sample, from which 1100 valid questionnaires were obtained. The results showed that: (1) Social media were superior to traditional news media in terms of its convenience. However, several new types of online news, such as Yahoo news, were able to compete with social media for convenience. (2) Interpersonal communication did not outperform in satisfying individuals' needs for the four gratifications. Nevertheless, interpersonal communication plays the role of social support for individuals.
本研究采用生态位理论，将社交媒体与新闻媒体和人际传播进行比较，探讨它们在满足人们在新冠疫情期间日常使用、监测、便利和信息质量这四种信息需求方面的能力。本研究采用了两种方法来收集数据：一是进行了 20 次深入访谈，二是通过委托拥有 880 万成员的专业调查公司进行在线调查。采用分层随机抽样方法获取了一个有代表性的样本，从中获得了 1100 份有效问卷。结果表明：（1）社交媒体在便利性方面优于传统新闻媒体。然而，雅虎新闻等几种新型在线新闻媒体能够在便利性方面与社交媒体相抗衡。（2）人际传播在满足个体四种满足感需求方面并未表现出优势。然而，人际传播对个体起着社会支持的作用。
