The digital divide in public health and safety emergencies deserve attention

Since December 2019, a number of viral pneumonia cases have been detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and as of January 24, 2020, there were confirmed or suspected cases in all regions except Qinghai and Tibet. The disease was named 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization on 12 January 2020. In recent years, outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, bird flu, African swine fever, and so on, should serve as a reminder to pay more attention to the public health and security emergencies. But the problem of the digital divide in it is also worth discussing more.

The concept of the digital divide first appeared in 1999 in Getting Behind the Net: Defining the Digital Divide by the National Remote Information and Information Administration, in terms of access to, use of, and adoption of new information technologies, divide people into the information-rich and the information poor, there is a “digital divide” between the two. With the rapid development of the Internet, People’s information acceptance has become pluralistic and rapid. In this process, low-frequency users of the Internet, and high-frequency users of the Internet, there will be information on the inconsistency and lag.”

In the face of sudden public health safety events, stabilizing public mood is an important part, and rumor is one of the important factors leading to emotional changes. For the information-rich, the rate of receiving official and correct information is much higher than for the information-poor. Access to and use of digital technology are two important dimensions of the digital divide. As of June 2019, China had 854 million Internet users, with a 61.2 percent Internet penetration rate, according to a new report by the China Internet Network Information Center, meaning that nearly 600 million people in China still do not use the Internet, and in the event of a major public health or safety incident, delayed reception could leave them in Information limbo.

The Rumor Susceptible Population Analysis Report 2017 said the rumor susceptible population is mainly middle-aged women with an average age of over 50 years old，they are slow response to information technology use and reception, lack of appreciation for the truth of rumors. Especially when they play the role of mothers, grandmothers and other social roles, which makes them more likely to spread health-related rumors.

In 2003, the outbreak of SARS（severe acute respiratory syndrome）in China, because the network is not developed, in the authoritative body issued a statement before, the folk spread many false rumors. In Guangzhou, for example, the virus can kill people in a single day and spread when people talk to each other. People began to buy disinfectants and cold medicines on a large scale, which caused confusion in the local medicine market. This confusion is more of a holistic phenomenon. In contrast to the 2019-nCoV outbreak, with the development of the Internet, and with big data, the news media used epidemic maps, development timelines, and personal hygiene animations, so that people more scientific and rapid understanding of the development of the disease. People started wearing masks and buying disinfectant. But according to a web survey, most of these practices occur among young people, and one interviewer said his parents refused to wear surgical masks, arguing that the disease was not as severe as the 2003 SARS epidemic. On the Internet, it even started a topic: “How to persuade parents to wear masks when they go out.” But at the same time, the survey said, parents were more likely to accept rumors about a cure for the disease.

Economic income, education, and willingness to receive are all factors that contribute to the digital divide, and here’s what I’d like to emphasize: This phenomenon, in daily life, is more hidden, slow, scattered, once the public health and safety emergency, it will become explosive, secondary. As the outbreak in Wuhan, China, the most vulnerable people are those over the age of 50. And these people are the low-lying areas of information reception. How To better bridge the gap also requires a lot of energy from government departments, the news media, and the community. Measures should be taken from technical access, information resource distribution, and network media literacy. For example, it is important to ensure that authoritative information is posted on the web, but also to ensure that authoritative information is sent to low frequency or difficult users of the web by other means, such as text messages.

Source:

1. http://www.cac.gov.cn/2019zt/44/index.htm

2.https://baike.baidu.com/item/2019新型冠状病毒/24267858?fromtitle=%E6%96%B0%E5%9E%8B%E5%86%A0%E7%8A%B6%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92&fromid=7904360&fr=aladdin

3.http://www.sohu.com/a/135037975_664487

4.https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B8%E4%BD%8D%E8%90%BD%E5%B7%AE

5.https://www.zhihu.com/question/367258958/answer/981803487