Research journals are important because they can offer us new insights and information about many different topics. For this assignment, I will be focusing on two articles. The first article is Mass media and social media during COVID-19: A review by Shaik M. Shameer. This article discusses the ways that different governments first responded to COVID-19 using social media and mass media. The author used qualitative research methods to support his findings. 

Qualitative research is defined as “a process that seeks better understanding of a social or human problem based on analyses conducted in natural settings,” (Rosenberry & Vicker, 2017, p. 212). Some of the ways that the author conducted research included examining the way that healthcare organizations and workers discussed coronavirus on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Shameer also studied the way that governmental agencies discussed the coronavirus on social media platforms in countries such as India, Egypt, and China. Shameer found that “panic and rage resolve the correlation between social media access, menace perception  at the personal level, and protective behaviors and these emotions manipulate the association between threat perception and mass media.” Shameer also found that governments should use social media and mass media to encourage citizens and inform them about taking preventative measures and what to do if the virus is contracted. The research is important because it shows how social media can be used not just for fun, but can help limit misinformation and inform the public in a timely manner.

The second article is titled Exposure to e-cigarette TV advertisements among U.S. youth and adults, 2013–2019. This article used quantitative research to examine the ways that increased e-cigarette advertising has led to more vaping, especially in youths. Some of the ways that the authors used qualitative research was by collecting data on how many e-cigarette advertisements were aired between 2013-2019. The researchers used Neilsen to collect this data. The researchers also measured the increase in the ads by using target rating points, which are calculated by multiplying the percentage of people exposed to an ad and the average number of times that the ad was seen by viewers. This research helped the authors conclude that there was a lull in e-cigarette ads from 2017-2018, but a resurgence occurred in 2019. Both adults and youths were The FDA and other organizations have tried to combat youth vaping, but it is getting harder to do this because the e-cigarette market continues to evolve. This research is important because it highlights the way that mass media can be used to market unhealthy products to the public, especially youth. I think that this article’s research methods were explained more in-depth because of the use of many statistics and even graphs and tables to support findings.