the association between covid-19 media literacy and the fear of covid-19 among students during coronavirus pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Background and objectives: the prevalence of the covid-19 epidemic in iran is associated with many psychological and social effects. this study aimed to examine the association between covid-19 media literacy and the fear of covid-19 among students during the coronavirus crisis. materials and methods: this cross-sectional was conducted on 300 students of hamadan universities which were selected with a multistage sampling method. to collect the data, the covid-19 media literacy scale (c-19mls) and the fear of covid-19 scale (fcv-19s) were used. data were obtained using the spss software version 23 and descriptive statistics, t-test, anova, chi-square, pearson correlation test, and regression analysis test were used. results: as the study results, the mean score of the fear of covid-19 was 11.88 ± 4.34; also, the mean score of covid-19 media literacy was 71.64 ± 11.36, respectively. the fear of covid-19 had a negative and significant correlation with the dimensions and total covid-19 media literacy (p <0.001). based on the simple linear regression analysis results, covid-19 media literacy (β=- 0.23) and usage of social media apps (β=0.58) were identified as predictors of the fear of covid-19. conclusion: the findings of this study showed that the covid-19 media literacy was inadequate in participants. also, covid-19 media literacy was related to the fear of covid-19. therefore, designing and implementing educational interventions to empower students in the field of media literacy related to covid-19 and media consumption regime seems to be necessary to help reduce anxiety and stress and increase the immune system against covid-19.