Use of internet memes in creating awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic among youths in Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the use of Internet memes in creating awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic among Youths in Jos metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria. It was guided by three research objectives and hinged on the visual rhetoric model. A quantitative research approach, a survey research design, a questionnaire as an instrument for data collection, and a purposive sampling method were employed. Findings from the study revealed that Facebook is the social media platform often used to access memes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also found that a significant majority of the respondents indicated that Internet memes to a great extent were used to create awareness of the pandemic. The study, however, found that memes on COVID-19 were used to promote falsehood about the pandemic.  From these findings, the work recommends that health, local and international bodies should leverage the huge shareability and accessibility of health campaign messages that Facebook offers. It also recommends that health bodies and the government should employ more visuals such as memes in disseminating health communications on social media due to their ability to communicate health messages in simple, attractive, and easy-to-understand ways. The study further recommends that the learning environment, media, health bodies, government, and non-government organisations should give time to teaching and promoting visual literacy to help counter the use of memes to promote falsehood about diseases and to acquaint themselves with the ethics of photos, including how they could be ethically used for health campaigns.