A comparison of media channels in pandemic warnings and the consent levels of Vietnamese youths in implementing preventative measures during Covid-19

Understanding the characteristics of media channels in health communication will considerably support optimising society's resources. During the pandemic outbreaks with the pervasive coverage of fake news, the governments should use appropriate media types to convey critical health information to the community. Therefore, analysing the effectiveness of media channels in warning disease will provide critical knowledge to aid in pandemic prevention, avoid the collapse of healthcare systems and reduce the risk of losing social control.
This study applied Friedman's ANOVA to compare different media types in terms of 'the frequency of receiving disease warnings from' and 'the usefulness in warning disease' among 4,648 Vietnamese youths. Moreover, their 'agreement to implement the preventive measures', 'travel plan adaptations', 'trust in the Government management' after receiving COVID-19 warnings were also explored. The results revealed that Short Message Service (from the Ministry of Health and other state agencies) and Television/Radio were the two channels frequently reached by young Vietnamese and had the highest usefulness assessments. Furthermore, youths received disease alerts most often from social networks, but this platform was not high-rated for usefulness. The Vietnamese government earned a considerably high trust level from young people, so they were willing to actively cancel their travel plans and adhere to preventive measures following disease warnings. Females had higher consent levels in complying with the health recommendations. Increasing the frequency of receiving disease alerts and the overall perception of the media usefulness were linked to a higher probability of adherence to preventive activities among Vietnamese youths. The findings suggest that managers should focus more on utilising relevant media types in pandemic preparedness and response.