Social media, political propaganda and herding: A case study of Vietnam in the coronavirus crisis

ABSTRACT

The new strain of coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has brought serious psychosocial effects to people all over the world, especially in countries where outbreaks have occurred, where information is already overloaded, led to a crisis in people's economic behavior. The paper examines the role of social media as a platform for political propaganda and its effect on the psychology of the crowd. Social media users are expected to increase the effectiveness of the Government's propaganda in these social media and will also promote unified individual opinion following the herd's trends in society. The statistical sample of the study was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, with a population of more than 10 million people. The results describe that social media, directly or indirectly, through mediating variables of government orientation, underpins the trend of crowds in society. Moreover, using social media to social interaction does not directly affect personal concepts, but this variable can indirectly increase the tendency to search and imitate majority in society through the intermediate variables of the propaganda trends. © The Author(s) 2021.