Peer Review : The role of social media in optimizing the healthy lifestyle movement “GERMAS” during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) need community participation to overcome. The social movement such as the healthy lifestyle movement “GERMAS” plays an important role to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. On the other hand, the infodemic was caused misinformation and disinformation. The high health literacy will lead people to participate in the GERMAS social movement. This study was aimed to explore the use of social media to improve health literacy on the healthy lifestyle social movement “GERMAS”. This research was conducted in Yogyakarta. It was conducted by reviewing documents, reviewing literature, and collecting primary data. Primary data collection was carried out through online surveys, focus group discussions, and indepth interviews. The number of respondents were 461 respondents, 449 filled out online surveys, 11 focus group discussions, and 1 in-depth interview. The study showed that WhatsApp was the most widely accessed source of information about COVID-19 (83%) and health protocols (82%) after television. In addition, WhatsApp had become the main source of information about GERMAS (73%). The results of the FGD and in-depth interviews showed that there was already a communication network through WhatsApp groups from the provincial to subdistrict/village levels that were used to share information on a regular basis to the public. Lack of “think tanks”, and bureaucratic ties make this network unable to function optimally. Social media had an important role in optimizing the GERMAS program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media management and good cooperation between government and private agencies were important keys for optimizing GERMAS in the pandemic er