Abstract
The aftermath of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) crisis in West Africa in 2014 was horrific. The EVD epidemic claimed 11,315 lives and had almost a 40 per cent killing rate. The EVD had huge negative effects on social, economic and political fronts of the four most affected countries Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Liberia was the country worst hit and Nigeria was the least affected among them. In both countries, social media was widely used to provide public health messaging and behavioural change guidance to the population on how to avoid getting infected with the deadly EVD. However, while the use of social media significantly reduced the spread of Ebola in Nigeria by 75 per cent, it was not effective in reducing the spread of the EVD in Liberia. In this paper, we reflect factors responsible for the ineffective use of mobile social media in aiding social behavioural change guidance towards the prevention of EVD spread in Liberia and the successful use of mobile social media in doing the same in Nigeria. We further reflect on the definition of ‘mobile social media’.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Wisner B, Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I (2004) At risk: natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, London and New York, 2nd edn. Routledge, London/New York
DuBois M, Wake C, Sturridge S, Bennett C (2015) The Ebola response in West Africa exposing the politics and culture of international aid. HPG working paper, 2015
Jungcurt S (2017) S. Assesses food security in Africa. [Online]. FAO assesses food security in Africa. Available: http://sdg.iisd.org/news/fao-assesses-food-security-in-africa/. Accessed 15 Apr 2017
UNDG – United Nations Development Group Report Socio-Economic Impact of Ebola Virus Disease in West African Countries (2015) [Online]. Available: http://www.africa.undp.org/content/dam/rba/docs/Reports/ebola-west-africa.pdf
Baize S, Pannetier L, Oestereich L et al (2014) Emergence of Zaire Ebola virus disease in Guinea. Eng J Med 371:1418–1425
EU-European Union (2017) EU response to the Ebola epidemic: ECHO FACTSHEET
WHO – World Health Organization (2015) Ebola Situation Report – 30 December 2015. [Online]. Available: http://apps.who.int/ebola/current-situation/ebola-situation-report-30-december-2015. Accessed 29 May 2017
International Crisis Group (2015) The politics behind the Ebola crisis. [Online]. Available: https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/194493/232-the-politics-behind-the-ebola-crisis.pdf
Fast L, Waugaman A (2016) Fighting Ebola with information: learning from data and information flows in the West Africa Ebola response. (USAID), 2016
Fayoyin A (2016) Engaging social media for health communication in Africa: approaches, results and lessons. J Mass Communication & Journalism 6:315. https://doi.org/10.4172/2165-7912.1000315
Kamara M (2015) Changing cultures: hanging lives—mobilising social media during a health crisis. In: Robertson ME (ed) Communicating, networking: interacting. The international year of global understanding – IYGU. Springer International Publishing, Cham
HC3 – Health Commun Capacity Collaborative (2017) Ebola: A behavior-driven crisis. [Online]. Available: https://healthcommcapacity.org/sbcc-and-ebola/. Accessed 20 February 2018
Rimal RN, Lapinski MK (2009) Why health communication is important in public health. Bull World Health Organ 87:247. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.08.056713 pmid: 19551226, 2009
Wall I, Robinson L (2008) Left in the dark: the unmet need for information in humanitarian responses. Policy briefing no.2, (BBC world service trust), 2008
Salmon CT, Arkins C (2003) Using media campaigns for health promotion. In: Thompson, Dorsey, Miller, Parrott (eds) Handbook of health communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 449–472
Neuhauser L, Kreeps GL (2010) E-health communication and behaviour change: promise and performance. Soc Semiot 20:7–24
Waters JK (2011) The everything guide to social media: all you need to know about participating in today’s most popular online communities. Adams Media, Avon
McNab C (2009) What social media offers to health professionals and citizens. Bull World Health Organ 87(8):566. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.09.066712
Tsai L, Blair R, Morse, B (2015) Patterns of trust and compliance in the fight against Ebola: Results from a Population-based survey of Monrovia, Liberia (IGC International Growth Centre), April. [Online]. Available: http://www.theigc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Economic-impacts-of-Ebola-Bulletin-3.pdf
Scott PR, Jacka JM (2015) Chapter 1: Social media: an overview. In: Auditing social media: a governance and risk guide, Wiley Online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119202585.ch1
O’Keeffe GS, Clarke-Pearson K (2011) The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families. Pediatrics 127(4):800–2011
English Oxford Living Dictionary (2017) Definition of social msedia in US English. [Online]. Available: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/social_media. Accessed 29 May 2017
Schein, R, Wilson, K, Keelan, J (2010) Literature review on the effectiveness of the use of social media: a report for peel public health. Region of Peel, Canada, 2010
Balancing Act Report (2014) The Sub-Saharan African media landscape – then, now and in the future. [Online]. Available: https://www.balancingact-africa.com/docs/reports/SSA-Media-Landscapepdf. Accessed 24 May 2017
Ericsson Mobility Report (2016) Sub-Saharan Africa [Online]. Available: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/mobility-report/documents/2016/ericsson-mobility-report-november-2016-rssa.pdf. Accessed 12 Jun 2017
BPSR – Bureau of Publica Service Reforms (2015) How Nigeria contained Ebola: lessons for institutional reform. [Online]. Available: http://bpsr.gov.ng/index.php/publications/bpsr-resources/evaluations?download=41:how-nigeria-contained-ebola-lessons-for-institutional-reform. Accessed 22 June 2017
Carter M (2014) Feature medicine and the media: how twitter may have helped Nigeria contain Ebola. BMJ 349:g6946. [Online]. Available: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6946.full.print. Accessed 22 June 2017
GSMA (2015) The Mobile Economy, Sub-Saharan Africa 2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/archive/GSMA_ME_SubSaharanAfrica_2015.pdf
BBG Broadcasting Board of Governors Gallup (2014) Contemporary media use in Nigeria [Online]. Available: https://www.bbg.gov/bbgresearch
NetHope (2014) Information and communication technologies response to the Liberia Ebola crisis: desk review and recommendations for private sector engagement. [Online]. Available: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9uoWk64NuLfSW9hVlN5dHVKM1E/view. Accessed 22 June 2017
Schreiber, L (2017) Everybody’s business: mobilizing citizens during Liberia’s Ebola outbreak, 2014–2015. Princeton University, 2017
Ministry of Health – Liberia (2015) National knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) study on Ebola virus disease in Liberia. [Online]. Available: https://www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/KAP-Study-Liberia-March-2015.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2017
HEART-Health and Education Advice Team (2014) Helpdesk reportEbola regional lesson learning. [Online] Available: http://www.heart-resources.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Ebola-Regional-Lesson-Learning-helpdesk-ONLINE-VERSION.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2017
USAID (2014) Technical brief: Use of Technology in the Ebola response in West Africa, November 2014. [Online]. Available: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00K99H.pdf
BBC (2014) BBC launches WhatsApp Ebola service. [Online]. Available: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29573964. Accessed 22 June 2017
BBC (2015) How BBC Ebola WhatsApp service is battling virus and finding great stories. [Online]. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/collegeofjournalism/entries/0f944ab7-9f96-4091-a927-db826630d997. Accessed 21 Feb 2018
Minisini, L (2014) New technologies aid in Ebola fight: short on doctors, tech AIDS Liberia in outbreak. [Online]. Available: http://globaljournalist.org/2014/11/ebola-text-piece/. Accessed 22 June 2017
Marcus, S (2014) Social media helps Nigeria fight Ebola. [Online]. Available: http://creation.co/knowledge/social-media-helps-nigeria-fight-ebola/. Accessed 29 May 2017
Newbold KB, Campos S (2011) Media and social media in public health messages: a systematic review. [Online]. Available www.mcmaster.ca/mihe/documents/publications/Social%20Media%20Report.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2017
Johnston LD, Terry-McEllrath YM, O’Malley PM, Wakefield M (2005) Trends in recall and appraisal of anti-smoking advertising among American youth: national survey results, 1997–2001. Prev Sci 6(1):1–19
Abramowitz AS, McKune SL, Fallah M, Tehoungue MKJ, Omidian AP (2015) The opposite of denial: social learning at the onset of the Ebola emergency in Liberia, Ebola response anthropology platform. [Online]. Available: http://www.ebola-anthropology.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Ebola_Social_Learning_Survey1_v2_ SAA.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2017
Jerving S (2014) Why Liberians thought Ebola was a government scam to attract western aid. [Online]. Available: http://www.thenation.com/article/why-liberians-thought-ebola-was-government-scam-attract-western-aid/. Accessed 28 May 2017
Glencorse B (2013) A decade of aid dependence in Liberia. [Online]. Available: https://www.devex.com/news/a-decade-of-aid-dependence-in-liberia-81634. Accessed 28 May 2017
Pettersson JS (2016) Round table discussion: the future of M4D. In: Zacarias, Larsson (eds) Proceedings of the 5th international conference on M4D mobile communication technology for development. M4D 2016, general tracks, Karlstad University studies 2016:40, p 300, 2016
Donner J (2015) After access. Inclusion, development, and a more mobile internet. MIT press, Cambridge, MA
Larsson CW, Zacarias OP (eds) (2016) Proceedings of the 5th international conference on M4D mobile communication technology for development. [Online]. Available: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1056790/FULLTEXT02.pdf. Accessed 20 February 2018
Acknowledgement
We express our thanks to student interns Kai Langenekert and Fabian Jaskotka who checked the references and formatted the document.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Eilu, E., Pettersson, J.S. (2019). Mobile Social Media for Preventing the Ebola Virus Disease Spread in Liberia and Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis. In: Paiva, S. (eds) Mobile Solutions and Their Usefulness in Everyday Life. EAI/Springer Innovations in Communication and Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93491-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93491-4_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93490-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93491-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)