BiH Info-portals and Commentary Section During Info/Pan/Demic: Searching for Values

Abstract

This paper deals with the analysis of the effects and perception of infoemia both on social networks and in the sphere of civic journalism during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparative analysis of the perception of the COVID-19 virus pandemic in developed democratic societies and its repercussions (to the audience above all) and comparison with the informational values of comments on the most visited online portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the essence of this work. In pursuing these goals, the work is divided into two parts. The first part of the paper analyzes the existential dissemination of information about the first and second wave of COVID-19 pandemics in the world with a focus on social networks and citizen writing – an audience about pandemics that has undoubtedly taken all the notes of infodemium where it is difficult to determine the information value of comments or writing prosumer. Web 2.0 as the dominant dissemination tool of all types of media content and the general approach and freedom of commenting have influenced the experience and – consecutive – perception of the available information. The informative cacophony affected the audience (which is also a generator of “informative” content) in several ways mentioned in the first part of the paper. The second part of the work deals exclusively with the analysis of the content of comments on several of the most visited informational portals of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most comments have been found to lack usable information value and contribute to media cacophony, and from the point of view of the value of news usually do not provide useful information or at best provide information whose credibility (although they may seem plausible and/or argumentative) cannot be easily verified. The conclusion of the paper is that the information value of comments from visitors to bh information portals is not particularly high in the slightest regard from the content level with rare examples of (semi)quality information of usable content.