Gen Z perceptions and behavioural responses to health crisis communication during COVID-19 in South Africa

This dataset aims to determine the views, perceptions and behaviours of Generation Z in South Africa towards health crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews, and the 12 participants were selected from across the gender among Gen Z at the University of Pretoria. These interviews dwelled on areas like trust in government messaging, adherence to health measures, using social and digital platforms to share information and attitudes towards contradictory or inconsistent health information.

The semi-structured interview methodology combining some extent of formal questions and answers with detailed participants’ descriptions gave profound qualitative data. It was, therefore, essential to come up with questions that would bring out episodes, feelings and thought processes that people went through during the pandemic. This way of working was helpful in thoroughly investigating the topics of interest while respecting the participants’ priorities. The dataset is central to this part of the analysis because cognitive dissonance, communication strategies, and behavioural outcomes are presumably linked in this population.