The Role of Social Media in Building Public Opinion on the Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on National Defense

The rapid development of information and communication technology makes it easy for people to obtain various types of information and interact socially, one of which is through social media. With various kinds of information in it, social media can influence public views in the process of forming opinions or points of view. In addition to having a positive impact, social media can also have a negative impact if users cannot filter properly the news or information they find. This research examines the role of social media in building public opinion, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic so that it affects national defense. The research method used is literature study. The results of the study show that social media has become a means of spreading both positive and negative information about Covid-19. Social media has great power to lead to public perceptions, which can generate opinions and then create social behavior that is counter-productive to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Public opinion on Covid-19 has an influence on people's readiness to face a global pandemic attack. The amount of information containing hoaxes or fake news related to Covid-19 has created a lot of confusion among the public, making handling it even more difficult, and causing a lot of material and immaterial losses, especially fatalities. This of course will affect the decline in the potential of national resources which will have an impact on the strength of the country's defense.