PROMOSI MEDIA SOSIAL DALAM MENDORONG PERILAKU PENGGUNAAN MASKER PADA MAHASISWA UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA SELAMA MASA KABUT ASAP

Abstract

Seasonal haze caused by forest and land fires is an environmental crisis that can reduce air quality and increase health risks among university students. Social media promotion can serve as a communication instrument to disseminate health information and encourage protective behavior, particularly mask use. This study aims to analyze the relationship between social media promotion and mask-use behavior among students at Universitas Sriwijaya during the haze period. A quantitative study with a causal associative approach was conducted involving 100 active Universitas Sriwijaya students from the Indralaya and Palembang campuses. Data were collected through an online questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale and analyzed using validity and reliability tests, simple linear regression, t-test, and coefficient of determination. The results indicate that social media promotion has a positive and significant relationship with students’ mask-use behavior, with a significance value of 0.000 and an R² value of 0.531. This indicates that social media promotion explains 53.1% of the variation in mask-use behavior, while the remaining 46.9% is explained by other factors. Therefore, social media can be utilized as a supporting communication medium to encourage consistent protective behavior among students during haze conditions.