Information Security in the Context of Pandemic: Methods for Stabilizing Society in Terms of Electronic Media and Internet

Abstract

Pandemics are social disasters provoking panic, acute stress and post-traumatic stress disorder, massive aggression, and other psycho-emotional and behavioral disorders. The strength of these reactions is associated with informational conditioning of a person in a period when archaic layers that cannot be rationalized are actualized in his psyche. The time has come for the analysis of information strategies that reinforce or deactivate the feelings of uncertainty and vital threat that arose in society. The paper explores mental disorders, psychological defenses and coping strategies that are relevant during a pandemic and similar disasters. The study also includes an assessment of the Russian language Internet content from April to July 2020, affecting the COVID-19 pandemic from the point of view of information security. The author reveals effectiveness of communicating information using the image of an eyewitness of events (expatriate compatriot) or an expert (infectious disease doctor, virologist). The position of an observer-journalist (reporting on hospitals from the position of an interviewer) is rarely effective in reducing social tension. Analytical programs that increase uncertainty increase anxiety. In panic, society needs samples of adaptive behavior and directives, humor that relieves fear. In the absence of officially disseminated medical recommendations, their place is taken by unqualified advice from ‘alternative medicine’ dangerous to public health. The reason for the panic and aggression is the low level of medical awareness of the population as well as the installation of false authority. The results obtained can be used by experts in the field of information security, the journalistic community.