“Be Aware” Application Contributed to Raising Awareness in The Face of The Pandemic A Thesis at UoB Calls for Employing Digital Applications in Education and Raising Awareness

Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Ali Al Sabbaq)

6 July 2023

A scientific thesis at the University of Bahrain (UoB) called for promoting the culture of employing digital applications in education and raising awareness, and using them in the development of a health communication system in the public and private sectors to play its role in health awareness and communication with the community.

The thesis was titled: “Employing Digital Applications to Enhance Communication and Raise Health Awareness in Times of Crisis – The Application of Be Aware as A Model”, and it examined the extent to which the “Be Aware” application contributed to enhancing communication and raising awareness among citizens and residents of the Kingdom of Bahrain during the Corona crisis.

The student in the Master’s in Communication program at UoB, Amani Al-Nafie, submitted the thesis to complete the requirements for obtaining a master’s degree.

The study findings showed that the “Be Aware” application contributed to raising awareness and enhancing communication to address the Corona virus and confront the crisis using a modern communication system.

It also revealed that the application data helped the Bahrain team in making decisions for the safety of citizens and residents and to limiting the spread of the epidemic.

In her study, the researcher, Al-Nafie, relied on semi-standardized interviews, as she interviewed 11 respondents from National Medical Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus, and 40 respondents from the residents of the Kingdom of Bahrain, by 20 citizens and 20 residents.

At the end of her thesis, the researcher recommended creating an infrastructure and a number of legislations to enhance the use of electronic applications in various fields, stressing the importance of developing educational and training curricula in universities and research centers to enhance the culture of digital applications.

She also stressed the importance of including health record data of “Be Aware” in the national identity file to benefit from it in conducting research and studies in various fields, especially in the health and educational fields, and strategic planning.

The committee discussing the student Al- Nafie consisted of: Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Tourism and Arts at UoB, Dr. Sama Alawi Al-Hashemi, as an internal examiner, and Associate Professor of Media at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Mukhtar Al-Areshi.