An Overview Of Information, Knowledge And Science Literacy Of Social Media Users Post Covid-19 In Malaysia: An Islamic Ethics Approach
Keywords:
Social, Media, Fake, News, EthicsAbstract
The movement control order (MCO) announced by the government of Malaysia due to COVID-19 pandemic has definitely amplified the role of social media in the atmosphere of dissemination of information and knowledge. The virtual world of social media has been a space which feed users with experiences not only on exchange of thoughts and ideas but also substantial information and knowledge. This has led to the explosion of information due to overloaded and too much information. This caused an unfortunate culture of ‘infodemic’ as defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as spreading misinformation, inaccurate knowledge, baseless science and fake news. Subtly, social media has been a space of informal education which moulds one’s behaviour and stream of thought through easy access of information and knowledge. This study attempts to examine the concept of information, knowledge and science literacy and to analyse the effect of movement control order on information, knowledge and science literacy among social media users post covid-19 in Malaysia. This study employs qualitative methods through library-based research of journal articles, extracting data from internet sources, and other relevant literatures. In addition, this study elaborates the challenges of instilling of information, knowledge and science literacy among social media users. This study proposed Islamic values as a solution to instil one’s sense of responsibility and to provide intrinsic sense of obligation when one is dealing with any social media interactions particularly in assessing the information, knowledge and science literacy. Solutions and recommendations on the Islamic ethics of technology are offered as guidelines for one to access knowledge from the virtual realm.
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