Coupled awareness-epidemic spreading incorporating the impact of self-media

Self-media, characterized by immediacy, interactivity, and decentralized dissemination, has emerged as a dominant force in information diffusion, significantly reshaping public risk perception and epidemic propagation dynamics during public health crises. While existing research has predominantly focused on empirical analyses of self-media’s impact on public emotions and behaviors, a theoretical framework capable of systematically elucidating the underlying mechanisms remains underdeveloped. To address this gap, this study develops a novel coupled awareness-epidemic spreading model that incorporates the influence of self-media. The model incorporates specialized self-media nodes to capture their enhanced role in awareness diffusion. It further introduces a feedback mechanism where the media heat quantified by the activity level of self-media nodes—intensifies the global information environment, thereby facilitating the spontaneous awakening of awareness among individuals even without local contact. Through the Microscopic Markov-Chain Approach, we analytically determine the epidemic threshold and characterize the system behavior. Numerical simulations confirm that the presence and activity of self-media suppress epidemic propagation and elevate the outbreak threshold by enhancing the efficiency of awareness diffusion. This study provides both theoretical foundations and practical insights for public opinion governance and risk intervention during public health emergencies in the self-media era.