INFUSION AND DIFFUSION OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE IN THE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

The pandemic outbreak of the covid19 further exposes how significant social media is in information dissemination and the conduct of human activities. Perceived usefulness of social media made several tertiary institutions to invest heavily in information technology. However, during the pandemic outbreak of covid19, several institutions, including universities, were on complete lockdown. While other organizations leveraged on the advantages of social media in carrying out their business operations, tertiary institutions, on the other hand, were still on complete lockdown and academic activities as a whole suspended despite the different social media platforms that can be utilized for academic purposes and the increased utilization of social media platforms by the younger generation. In this study, the challenges of carrying out and how the integration of social media assisted in the conduct of academic and administrative operations of universities during the covid19 pandemic were investigated. Roger’s diffusion of innovation theory was adopted in explaining the possible factors that can influence the adoption of social media usage. Close ended questionnaire was used to obtain data by purposive sampling technique. The findings from this study yielded informed decisions of utilizing social media in the daily operations during global lockdown like that of covid19, because social media has proven to be a reliable channel for sharing information and conduct of business activities.

Keywords: Information Technology, Pandemic, Covid19