Jurnal ASPIKOM, Vol. 5, No. 2, July 2020, pp.

188-205
P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24329/aspikom.v5i2.741 n 188

Google Trends and Information Seeking Trend of COVID-19 in

Indonesia

Google Trends dan Tren Pencarian Informasi COVID-19 di Indonesia

Putri Limilia 1, Benazir Bona Pratamawaty 2

1
Universitas Padjadjaran, Jl. Raya Jatinangor KM 21,5, Jatinangor, Jawa Barat
2
Universitas Padjadjaran, Jl. Raya Jatinangor KM 21,5, Jatinangor, Jawa Barat
*Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic due to its rapid increase in cases outside
China. COVID-19 has also affected a growing number of countries. However, the Indonesia
government responded to the declaration in a not-serious manner, which has generated
uncertainty circumstance among its public. This circumstance has driven people to consume
information as much as they are possible to consume. This study aims to map out the trend of
information-seeking concerning COVID-19 in Indonesia using Google Trends and to compare it
to the information available on Indonesia's Ministry of Health official website from January
until March. This study was descriptive quantitative, which used Google Trends as data
collection tools. The research found that information seeking concerning COVID-19 has been
increasing since the end of January. Government statements were found as the trigger of the
information-seeking activity escalation and also served as the reason behind different
information-seeking trends each month.
Keywords: COVID-19; Google trends; Information seeking; Risk communication

Abstrak
WHO telah menetapkan COVID-19 sebagai pandemi karena meningkatnya jumlah kasus
terinfeksi virus yang sangat cepat di luar China dan telah menginfeksi sejumlah banyak negara.
Pemerintah relatif santai dalam merespon kebijakan tersebut sehingga menimbulkan
ketidakpastian dalam masyarakat. Ketidakpastian ini mendorong masyarakat mencari dan
mengkonsumsi informasi sebanyak mungkin. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk memetakan
pencarian informasi COVID-19 pada bulan Januari-Maret 2020 melalui Google Trends serta
melakukan komparasi dengan ketersedian informasi di situs Kementerian Kesehatan. Metode
yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kuantitatif deskriptif dengan menggunakan Google
Trends sebagai alat pengumpulan data. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pencarian
informasi COVID-19 mulai mengalami kenaikan di akhir bulan Januari. Kenaikan aktivitas
pencarian informasi terkait COVID-19 pada umumnya disebabkan oleh pernyataan-pernyataan
pemerintah yang juga merupakan penyebab adanya perbedaan tren pencarian pada setiap
bulannya.
Kata Kunci: COVID-19; Google trends; Pencarian informasi; Komunikasi risiko

Article History: Received Mei 28, 2020; Revised June 23, 2020; Accepted July 28, 2020
P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309 n 189

Introduction
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one of the infectious diseases that have
been pandemic almost all over the world. The first case of COVID-19 was found in
Wuhan at the end of November 2019. After that, this case spread quickly not only in
China but also globally. At the end of January 2020, there were around 10,000
confirmed cases of COVID-19 scattered throughout the world (Google, 2020).
World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March
11, 2020. This declaration was based on the fact that coronavirus is a new virus that is
easily transmitted between people throughout the world. The COVID-19 vaccine has
also not been discovered so that its spread cannot be prevented and stopped. This
situation causes anxiety and uncertainty throughout the world. Each country has
different responses and policies in dealing with this outbreak.
Taiwan, which is one of the closest countries to China, chose to lockdown their
country when the number of confirmed cases rose. The Taiwanese government is also
pro-active by providing masks in advance and being transparent to the public regarding
COVID-19 information (Kurnia, 2020). Transparency is essential factor in dealing with
a crisis because it can reduce the uncertainty faced by the community (Lee, 2009).
Transparency can also provide information to the public regarding the difficulties and
dangers we are facing. On the other hand, transparency is also the key for the
government to gain public trust in times of crisis (Harrison, 2020).
Vietnam is also one of the countries in Southeast Asia that succeeds in combating
COVID-19. The Vietnamese government made series of efforts to overcome COVID-
19, including mass checking and delivering a clear message to the public (Wirawan,
2020). These efforts are proven to be effective in preventing the spread of the virus in a
short time. The handling of COVID-19 in Vietnam proves that proper communication
with messages that prioritizes transparency and honesty is essential and crucial factor
when facing a crisis. Therefore, a wise and precise communication strategy is needed by
the government in times of crisis.
Unfortunately, something different was done by the Indonesian government in the
efforts to deal with and overcome the COVID-19 outbreak. From the beginning, the
government did not take this pandemic seriously and tended to simplify this virus by
issuing a series of incorrect statements. For example, the government suggested to
intensify the promotion of the tourism sector as well as to remain calm and relax during
this pandemic and argued that Indonesia is immune from COVID-19 (Almuttaqi, 2020;
Mas'udi & Winanti, 2020).
The chaos was exacerbated by messages from government officials who were
inconsistent with each other in responding to the spread of COVID-19. The
inconsistency can also be seen from the policies of central and regional governments
that did not go hand-in-hand regarding lockdown. Some local governments enacted a
policy to close their regions, but the central government opposed the policy. The central
government claimed that the lockdown policy was their authorization (Almuttaqi,
2020).
A government that stammers in communication during a pandemic can threaten its
success in dealing with COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published communication
guidelines in times of crisis, especially in the context of health, which is called risk
communication. Risk communication is the process of exchanging information, advice,
and opinions between experts, community leaders, government, and communities at risk

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and is an integral part of every emergency (World Health Organization, 2017).

Several points must be considered in creating effective risk communication such
as information that can help people make decisions, information that is clear and easy to
understand, effective media utilization, information that is regularly updated, and others
(Holmes et al., 2009). Effective risk communication also should be carried out before
and during the crisis (Reynolds & Seeger, 2005). This research will use several concepts
in risk communication to analyze government information or messages on the Ministry
of Health's website before and during the crisis.
Another problem faced by the government is the lack of information disclosure
related to COVID-19, especially at the beginning of the pandemic (Mas'udi & Winanti,
2020; Yunus & Rezki, 2020). The government argued that the disclosure of information
could cause panic, which would have an impact on the economy. Instead of being
protective, the policies taken by the government created uncertainty and panic in the
community.
Communities are trying to reduce this uncertain situation by searching for
COVID-19 information through various information sources, such as mass media and
the internet. Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) revealed that the number of
television viewers increased by 50% during the pandemic because people made
television as the primary medium to get information on COVID-19 (Utama, 2020). This
also happened in several other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia. In
the UK, people access BBC News more often during the pandemic (Ellis, 2020).
People also use the internet, especially social media, to find information related to
COVID-19. In Indonesia, social media is the most widely accessed source of
information besides online media and television (Iman, 2020). Access to trusted news
pages has also increased in Australia (Harrison, 2020). People only choose reliable
sources of information regarding COVID-19 to avoid misinformation and hoaxes.
In the digital age, the use of the internet to search for health information has been
a common activity. People prefer to browse information regarding their physical
condition on the internet rather than seeing a doctor. The same thing happened when
COVID-19 attacked Indonesia. Public tried to find in-depth information about this virus
in the Google search engine.
The activity of searching for health information is stored in Google's database. In
some countries, the data is used to make observations and even predict a pandemic
(Carneiro & Mylonakis, 2009; Fazeli Dehkordy et al., 2014; Mellon, 2013; Polgreen et
al., 2008a). For example, Google search activity that used keywords related to influenza
symptoms indicates that the disease is endemic in the community (Cook et al., 2010;
Ginsberg et al., 2009; Johnson et al., 2004; Polgreen et al., 2008a).
This study uses the database of community search activities to map the trend of
the COVID-19 information search from January to March 2020. This is important to
obtain an overview of information needs in the initial phase of the crisis, which can later
be used as recommendations for making messages right on the target.
This article also compares the search for information and the availability of the
information on the government website https://www.kemkes.go.id/. This comparison is
vital to map out the communication made by the government in the initial phase. It will
help to figure out whether the messages delivered by the government has met the
society’s information needs or not. The results of this comparison can be served as an
input for the government to formulate contents for the official website.

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Method
This research used descriptive quantitative method that aims to describe the
frequency of keywords used on the Google search engine. In the era of big data, Google
Trends has begun to be widely used as a research method in the fields of health,
economics, and politics (Jun et al., 2018). This method is used to read the trend of
information search in the community. However, the information search is segmented
and cannot be generalized (Nuti et al., 2014). That is because the information search is
only limited to people who have access to the internet (Mellon, 2013, 2014).
In the context of this research, information search is carried out by Indonesians
who have internet access. These communities are not only limited to communities in
Java but also outside Java. This can be seen from the search results, which show that
searches for some keywords are not only limited to people in Java but also people
outside Java. This means that information search on Google Trends is carried out by
people throughout Indonesia with ownership of internet access as an initial prerequisite.
Research in the field of health is one of the pioneers in using Google Trends to
map information searches related to health topics. For example, the search for the topic
of "throat cancer" is high when news of new treatment technologies is discovered
(Faoury et al., 2019). Several other health studies also use Google Trends to predict
outbreaks of disease in an area (Eysenbach, 2011; Ginsberg et al., 2009; Polgreen et al.,
2008b).
Google Trends is one of the products of Google Inc., which serves to present a
keyword index used by internet users in information search activities within a specified
period and specific geographical areas (Choi & Varian, 2012; Tijerina et al., 2019). The
data of the search results are presented in the range of 0-100, with the peak point of the
search will get a value of 100 (Choi & Varian, 2012; Faoury et al., 2019). This value is
obtained by comparing the number of searches for certain keywords with the number of
searches that exist on Google at a certain period (Choi & Varian, 2012). The value of
zero does not mean that there are no searches related to these keywords. It only means
that there is not enough data (Faoury et al., 2019).
There are two stages of researching by using Google Trends. Firstly, the
researchers type the searched keywords in the "search term" column, and Google Trends
will present the results in several categories, namely interest over time, interest by
subregion, related topics, and related queries (Table 1). This data, on the second stage,
will be processed for research purposes. Data used in this study are data in the
categories of interest over time, interest by subregion, and related queries.
Table 1. Terms in Google Trends (source: trends.google.com)
No Term Definition
1 Interest over The number that appears shows the relative number to the highest
time point on the chart of search interest in a particular time and
region. The peak popularity of search keywords is indicated by a
value of 100, a value of 50 is for keywords that have a popularity of
half of the peak value, while a value of 0 is given for keywords that
do not have enough data or the least data volume
2 Interest by To see the regions or locations where the keywords you entered are
subregion most popular within a certain period. The values are calculated by
using a scale of 0 to 100 in which 100 indicates the location where
the keyword is the most popular in the total search, 50 is for locations
where the keyword's popularity is only half of the location which is

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worth 100, while 0 indicates the location that does not have enough
data for the keyword entered.
3 Related queries Users who search for these keywords also search for other keywords
that can be sorted by the following metrics:
* Top - The most popular query. Values are given based on a relative
scale where the queries that are most frequently searched for are
given a value of 100, a value of 50 is for queries whose search
frequency is half of the most popular queries, and so on.
* Rising - Indicates the query with the highest search frequency since
the previous period. "Breakout" is a sign for a result that has a
tremendous increase, most likely because this query is new and has
few (if any) previous searches.

This research examined the use of three keywords that are used the most by the
government and the media in conveying information related to the COVID-19 case,
namely "Corona," "Coronavirus," and "COVID-19". These three keywords are also used
interchangeably on the official government website, which continuously provides
information regarding Corona from January to date. The websites are the official
website of the Ministry of Communication and Information
(https://www.kominfo.go.id/) and the official website of the Ministry of Health
(https://www.kemkes.go.id/).
Three keywords used in this research were "Corona," "Coronavirus," and
"COVID-19". The researchers used quotation marks when referring to keywords and
did not use quotes when referring to viruses or diseases. For example, if the researchers
write "COVID-19", it means that the researchers are explaining the keywords; if the
researchers write COVID-19, the researchers are refer to an ongoing pandemic.
The research was validated in two ways, namely by content validity (Mellon,
2013) and comparison with external datasets (Nuti et al., 2014). Content validity was
carried out by comparing these keywords with words that were in "related queries" of
Google's search engine. If these keywords are the same as the words in the "related
queries" category on the Google search engine, the result data are valid. The study also
carried out the validity test by comparing search keywords on Google's search engine
with news topics on two online news portals (https://www.okezone.com/ and
https://www.tribunnews.com/) on the same day. Those two media were chosen because,
according to Alexa, they are the two most frequently accessed online news portals in
Indonesia (Alexa, 2020).
The result of the content validity test showed that the words on "related queries"
in Google search engines were the same and related to the keywords used so that the
data used was valid. The result of the validity test with an external dataset also showed
the same thing. The search trend on Google at a particular time was also accompanied
by massive news in the mass media, especially in Okezone and Tribunnews.

Results and Discussion

The trend of information seeking about Coronavirus in Indonesia has begun since
last January and escalated significantly until March 2020. This research used three
keywords to map the information search trend about Coronavirus in Indonesia, namely
"corona," "coronavirus," and "COVID-19" during a period from January to March 2020.
The keyword "corona" was the only keyword in which its frequency always
increased since the early year. In the meantime, the use of keyword "coronavirus" was

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fluctuated both in February and March 2020. Different from those two keywords, the
keyword "COVID-19" was not widely used in January and February 2020, but it rose
slightly in March 2020 after WHO officially released the name of the coronavirus as
COVID-19 in February 2020 (Figure 1).

Tren Pencarian
COVID-19 Informasi
Information Covid-19
Search Trend

90%

84%

88%

6%
15%
12%
3%
0%
CORONA CORONAVIRUS COVID-19

Januari Februari Maret

Figure 1. The information search trend about Coronavirus in Indonesia (January-

March 2020)
According to the data of information seeking based on geographical area, each
region in Indonesia typed different keywords to find information about COVID-19
(Figure 2). Most regions in Indonesia used the keyword "corona" more frequently, and
provinces like West Java, East Java, Aceh, and Riau were the top list of the provinces
that used the keyword.

Penggunaan Kata for

Use of Keywords Kunci
eachper Daerah
Regional
Corona Coronav irus Covid-19

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%
92% 91% 91%
85% 88% 87%
40%

30%

20%

10%
15%
11% 9% 9% 9% 10%
7% 7% 7%
0% 2% 3% 2%
SUMATERA JAWA BALI-NUSA TENGGARA KALIMANTAN SULAWESI-MALUKU PAPUA

Figure 2. The frequency of keyword use per area

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West Java's and East Java's people typed the keyword "corona" frequently because
of the numerous news concerning foreign workers from China who settled in the two
provinces and be suspected COVID-19. Consequently, the people were encouraged to
search for information profoundly about COVID-19. Meanwhile, the people of Aceh
and Riau used keyword "corona" to find the information about the repatriation of
university students from Wuhan.
Compared to other keywords, the keyword "corona," overall, was the most widely
used in all islands in Indonesia. It means that the society was more familiar with the
word "corona" to refer to COVID-19 than to the official term introduced by WHO.
However, the government, particularly the Ministry of Health of Indonesia Republic,
used the term "COVID-19" more often in social media accounts than the word
"Corona."
The government should use more familiar terms for the public, especially if it is a
new term. For example, in January, the government did not use a consistent term in
referring to COVID-19. There were some words used by the government, such as
Corona, Coronavirus, Korona, and Virus Corona. This inconsistency in using the term
could confuse society and inhibit the effectiveness of communication. Meanwhile, the
effectiveness of communication can only be achieved when there is correlation and
similarity between what is thought by the sender and receiver of the message in the
communication process holds. Therefore, a text or term must be used consistently
because the first and foremost requirement of effective communication is the use of a
consistent set of messages (Winbow, 2002).
The search which used the keyword "Coronavirus" was used the most by the
public in Java, in which West Java and East Java were still the highest. Meanwhile, in
Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua Island, mostly, people used the keyword "COVID-19,"
compared to the other areas.
Generally, the chronological data readings showed that the keyword "corona" was
still the most widely used keyword from early January to March 2020. On January 21,
2020, the use of keyword "corona" increased and peaked on January 27, 2020. This
escalation was caused by a statement from the Minister of Health, Terawan, on social
media that recommended that the public be calm and relaxed amid the COVID-19 threat
(Warta Ekonomi, 2020).
Another possible factor that caused the high search frequency of keyword
"corona" during that period was the spread of information concerning two people of
Bandung who were suspected COVID-19 (Adyatama, 2020). Although the government
immediately refuted that information as a hoax, the refutation was not directly stated by
the authoritative and credible public official as a communicator in the time of crisis,
which was Terawan as the Minister of Health. The refutation, indeed, was uttered by a
president's special staff in social affairs who did not have the authority to handle
COVID-19 (Adyatama, 2020).
The delivery of noteworthy information through a public official with inadequate
credibility, in the context of handling COVID-19, indirectly degraded the degree of
people's trust toward the government's capability and credibility in handling this
pandemic. The public needs a visual symbol that symbolizes the government's
credibility by presenting high-qualified government officials, which are accompanied by
an expert in front of the public when they are delivering crucial information in the time
of crisis (Harrison, 2020). Moreover, there is no clarification of information toward
hoaxes on the official website of the Ministry of Health. At that time, the website only

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informed the basic knowledge about COVID-19.

In January, the use of keyword "corona" to fulfill the basic information necessity
about the virus, such as the meaning or definition of "corona," was noted. Some
sentences concerning the virus were searched like "apa itu corona" (what is corona?) or
"corona adalah" (corona is). This search is reasonable because, in that time, the word
"corona" was a new term in society, so that they tried to find and consume the
information as a part of self-education (Bento et al., 2020). The other identified searches
were "ciri-ciri corona" (characteristic of the corona) or "gejala corona" (symptoms of
the corona), which indicate that the public began to self-introspect on the possibility of
being suspected COVID-19 by knowing the symptoms. Besides, other searches use the
word "Indonesia" like "Indonesia corona," "corona virus Indonesia," "apakah virus
corona sudah masuk Indonesia" (has coronavirus entered to Indonesia?), "virus corona
masuk Indonesia" (coronavirus gets in Indonesia), "suspect virus corona di Indonesia"
(suspected coronavirus in Indonesia), and others. Indonesian people used those words to
verify whether the coronavirus has entered Indonesia.
There are two implications from the search for using the keyword "virus corona
sudah masuk Indonesia" (coronavirus has entered Indonesia). Firstly, Indonesian did not
trust the government, which claimed that COVID-19 would not come to Indonesia. This
distrust appeared amid international news, which continuously found positive cases,
including in some southeast Asian countries. Secondly, the public was haunted by
worries and wanted to ensure whether the coronavirus had entered and spread in
Indonesia.
However, the government was less precise in responding the society's worries.
One of the examples is the statement of President Jokowi, which ensured that the
coronavirus had not been detected in Indonesia (Figure 3). The government also
appealed to the people to stay calm, relax, and eat sufficiently (Almuttaqi, 2020). The
blunder statements of government were exacerbated by the unavailability of information
transparency about COVID-19 (Yunus and Rezki, 2020). Meanwhile, still in January,
the official website of the Ministry of Health, kemenkes.go.id, only published news
about COVID-19 suspect, which was then clarified negative without proceeding the
report.

Figure 1. The search result of the keyword "virus corona masuk indonesia" (coronavirus
comes in Indonesia) in January 2020

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Simultaneously, the use of keyword "coronavirus" rose gradually and hit the peak
on January 26, 2020. This trend was not far different from the use of keyword "corona"
because those two words were used interchangeably. This is probably due to the
absence of an official term to refer to COVID-19, so that the public, media, and
government often used "corona" and "coronavirus" interchangeably to refer to the same
thing. The keyword "coronavirus" is mostly used to seek information concerning the
definition of coronavirus (with sentences like "corona virus adalah" and "apa itu
coronavirus"), its symptoms, coronavirus in Indonesia, and others. The related queries
which were used were similar to the search that use the term "corona." However, there
were some related queries that differ with the search that used the word "corona" like
"peta coronavirus" (coronavirus map), "SARS," "update," and "Bali." Therefore, the
related queries of keyword "coronavirus" were more specific than the use of keyword
"corona" which still searched for general information. This showed the different
characteristics of society who used the keywords "corona" and "coronavirus." A group
of people who used the keyword "coronavirus" can be considered to have pre-
knowledge with a higher level of education and knowledge because they were able to
use relevant keywords to search more specific information, such as COVID-19
distribution maps, the latest updates, and the relevance between COVID-19 and SARS.
On the other hand, the keyword "COVID-19" was never used during January because
the word was first introduced and used officially on February 11, 2020.
In February, the data reported the pattern change in COVID-19 information
seeking. The society who searched by using the keyword "corona" began to find out
more specific information, such as the patients and the latest update of the COVID-19
case in Indonesia. It differs from the search in January, which was more general, like the
definition and the symptoms. This condition indicates that society had begun to realize
the presence of COVID-19 and responded to it by seeking information about what they
can and should do in facing this crisis (Bento et al., 2020).
The pattern change of the search also happened in the related queries from the
word "Indonesia Corona." While in January, the society used the keyword "Indonesia
Corona" to ensure whether the COVID-19 case has been found in Indonesia, in
February, they used the keyword to find out regarding how immune Indonesia to the
coronavirus. This can be seen from the information search using the keyword
"Indonesia kebal Corona" (Indonesia is immune to the Corona). This search was once
again caused by the statement of the Minister of Health, who said that a good immunity
and an intense praying would prevent the coronavirus from entering Indonesia
(Liputan6, 2020). On the contrary, at the same time, some southeast Asian countries had
reported positive cases of COVID-19.
A statement from the Minister of Health, Terawan, during the early stage of the
pandemic was not appropriate because it tended to lead the audiences to take the wrong
direction. The result of the search in Google by using the keyword "Indonesia kebal
Corona" (Indonesia is immune to the Corona) showed the information of the reasons
why Indonesia could be immune to the coronavirus. Some media published this
information by quoting an interviewee with an expert, namely Prof. Chairul A. Nidom
from Professor Nidom Foundation (PNF) (Tempo, 2020). This expert is a lecturer and
researcher in Universitas Airlangga. His background certainly justified his credibility.
Furthermore, his credibility was also supported by a post from the Governor of East
Java in her Instagram official account about a discovery of COVID-19 medicine from
Prof. Nidom. Indeed, the background of the interviewee as an academician strengthens

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his credibility. However, no research has proved that Indonesia can be immune from the
coronavirus. This information is hazardous because it tends to mislead the public. This
is because society tends to believe information from a legitimate institution (Seeger,
2020; Sutton et al., 2018).
The next related queries, which were mostly used in February 2020, were
"korban corona" (victim of the corona) or "korban virus corona" (victim of
coronavirus). These keywords were used to find the number of COVID-19 victims. In
this phase, the public had begun to search for how dangerous this virus is by checking
the number of world victims. The use of these keywords peaked on February 13, 2020.
At the time, the media busily reported the mortality cases caused by COVID-19 in
Wuhan, which has increased twice (Saputra, 2020).
Consuming the information about the number of victims certainly creates an
effect that contradicted the government's suggestion for staying calm. The number of
victims, which rose continually and significantly, evoked restlessness and worries amid
the society and made them doubting the government's efforts in freeing Indonesia from
Corona. This doubt was aggravated by the statements of international institutions, like
WHO, or Harvard researchers who stated that the chance was tiny that COVID-19 had
not entered to Indonesia (Rahayu, 2020).
In February, the society began to follow the development of COVID-19, as seen
from the numerous searches with keywords "update terbaru Corona" (the latest update
of Corona), "Corona terbaru" (the latest Corona), "Corona hari ini" (Corona todays), and
others. The search result from those keywords provided information on the latest
number of COVID-19 victims daily all around the world. It implies that the public had
considered COVID-19 as one of the significant issues so that they want to get the latest
information about COVID-19. In other words, COVID-19 had successfully become a
public agenda.
In addition, the keyword "coronavirus" was differently used in February 2020.
There were some new related queries used by the Indonesia people, namely "Korea
Coronavirus," "Singapore Coronavirus," "Coronavirus Japan," "live coronavirus," and
others. These related queries were different from the use of the keyword "corona." The
people who used the keyword "coronavirus" showed a better skill in searching for
information than the society who used the keyword "corona." The users of the keyword
"coronavirus" searched for more specific information, such as the cases of COVID-19 in
Singapore, Korea, and Japan. These three countries were known as countries that were
affected by the COVID-19 in the first wave. The keyword "Singapore coronavirus" was
mostly used by the society in Riau Province during February 2020. The search reached
the peak when the Prime Minister of Singapore announced the country was in the
"orange" status because the amount of the positive cases increased regularly. The
keyword "Korean coronavirus" was also sought after when the South Korean
government announced that the country was in critical condition. Furthermore, the
keyword "Japan coronavirus" was sought after the spread of information about the
Japanese citizen who was suspected positive after having a vacation in Bali.
The keyword "live coronavirus" was used to check COVID-19 positive patients
who have recovered. The related query, which was often used, was "coronavirus live
update" and mostly used by the internet users in Bali. However, the search result in
Google or official websites of the government did not inform the number of recovered
patients.
In early March 2020, the government announced the first positive case of COVID-

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19 in Indonesia. This finding changed the pattern of information seeking about COVID-
19 in terms of the aspect of frequency or the use of related queries. In the context of the
keyword "corona," some keywords, namely "gejala corona" (corona symptoms),
"Indonesia corona," and "update corona." experienced significant escalations in the
number of the user. This finding is in line with the research conducted in the United
States lately (Bento et al., 2020).
The keyword "gejala corona" (corona symptoms) or "ciri-ciri corona"
(characteristics of the corona) rose significantly compared to the previous month. The
most frequently time spent by the public to find the information was on March 2, 15, 16,
and 23, 2020. The high number of that information seeking was stimulated by the
statements of the governmental public officials. For example, on March 2, 2020, the
government announced the first positive case of COVID-19. It encouraged Indonesian
people to seek information about COVID-19 as much as possible, and one of the most
sought was information about the symptoms of COVID-19. This information is essential
for them to minimize the uncertainty amid the pandemic, which has not found exactly
the way to cure it (Bento et al., 2020; Reynolds & Seeger, 2005).
Furthermore, to appease their uncertainty, the public kept following the
development of COVID-19 news. This can be checked from the frequency of the search
keyword "update corona" which escalated gradually in early March 2020, reached the
peak on March 27, 2020, and then decreased again. The appealing finding concerning
the use of this keyword is that the society typed specific keywords like "update corona 2
maret” or “update corona 27 maret" (corona updates on March 2 or corona updates on
March 27). This indicates that the public observed the daily accretion of the number of
COVID-19 positive patients.
There are two new related queries in March 2020, and those are "obat" (medicine)
and "Jakarta". The search "obat Corona" (Corona medicine) fluctuated with the peaks of
searches on March 2, 16, and 22, 2020. Each date had different motives. On March 2
2020, the keyword "obat corona" was mostly used because the government announced
the first positive case of COVID-19 in Indonesia. In this context, the society used the
keyword "obat corona" as a form of anticipation toward the COVID-19 transmission.
The other dates, March 16 and 22, 2020, the keyword "obat corona" were stimulated by
the government's statement that informed that they had ordered the Corona medicine
from China.
The search result on the keyword "obat corona" in Google was quite
heterogeneous, with the sources of information primarily came from media and
unverified sites. The information from unverified sites endangers the society because its
validity has not been verified. Society tends to believe the information from any media,
either conventional media or digital media, about the issue outside their knowledge and
experience. Additionally, society is prone to regard the messages which are suitable for
their belief and preference (Chomsky & Barclay, 2010). Therefore, the information
from unverified sites can produce a mistaken belief and perception about the medicine
of COVID-19. It is the government's task and role to control the distribution of
unverified information. However, the government, particularly the Ministry of Health,
did not verify that unverified information. In March 2020, the official website of the
Ministry of Health only published two news concerning COVID-19 medicine. This
condition was inversely proportional to the search result in Google.
Although this issue of verifying untrusted information was handled by the
Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemkominfo), the verification result was

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P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309 n 199

published on https://www.kominfo.go.id/, the official website of the Ministry of

Communication and Information, rather than in https://www.kemkes.go.id/, the official
website of the Ministry of Health. This condition indicates an ineffective overlapping
information flow arrangements in overcoming COVID-19. In the communication of
crisis, communication should be channeled from one source and symbolized by one
person as the representation and visualization of the government to prevent confusion
among society. The selection and appointment of this primary communicator are
notably crucial to accelerate the end of a crisis. For example, in China and Singapore,
all government's public communication agenda concerning COVID-19 are only
delivered by the prime minister.
That ideal is in opposition to the Indonesia government's public communication
during this crisis in which the government seems to be not unified. Each ministry
institution published its statement about COVID-19 based on its interests. Ideally, after
the establishment of the task force, only the task force's chief is entitled to deliver
information about COVID-19. This unideal condition used to happen in the United
States of America when this country was attacked by Zika epidemic. At the time, not
only the government that led the communication but also politicians, which eventually
produced distortion of messages (Hagen et al., 2018).
Furthermore, the keyword "coronavirus" was still used in March 2020. The public
used this keyword to find out information about the symptoms, distribution maps,
coronavirus in Indonesia, update coronavirus, and coronavirus in Italy. The distribution
map of the search for COVID-19 in March 2020 was different from the previous month.
In March, specific words were used more frequently like "world meters coronavirus
map" and "john hopkins coronavirus map." These related queries confirm the findings
of this study that the users of the keyword "coronavirus" have a different demographic
background than the users of the keyword "corona." One of the examples is the use of
the keyword "Cornavirus Italy," which aimed to understand the development of
COVID-19 in Italy. This keyword is not found in the use of the keyword "Corona."
After the announcement of the name 'COVID-19' by WHO, the keyword
"COVID-19 started to be used by many people when they browsed in Google. The
frequency of the search began to rise in March when the government announced the
positive case and used that terminology consistently to refer to the disease caused by the
novel coronavirus. There are some related queries of the keyword "COVID-19", namely
"apa itu COVID-19" (what is COVID-19), "COVID-19 adalah" (COVID-19 is), "arti
COVID-19" (meaning of COVID-19), and others. These related queries illustrate that
the public still did not understand the meaning of COVID-19. This condition is
reasonable because the use of this terminology has just emerged in March 2020. The
government and media were the institutions that socialize the terminology for the first
time, which was then adopted by various elements of society until now, i.e., in the field
of education.
The public also typed the other related queries like "penyebab COVID-19"
(causes of COVID-19), "pencegahan COVID-19" (prevention of COVID-19), dan "cara
mencegah COVID-19" (how to prevent COVID-19) when they used the keyword
"COVID-19”. The use of these related queries demonstrated that the public has been
more aware of being actively involved in preventing COVID-19 transmission. The
society began to participate by finding out the relevant information in advance. At the
same time, the government has also provided the needed information on its official
website, so that anyone could access it.

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After the announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Indonesia,

the government began to improve public communication. It began with the formation of
the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Handling on March 13, 2020. The
Task Force has a responsibility to coordinate activities among relevant government
agencies in dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. The Task Force also represents the
government in providing information about COVID-19. In other words, government
risk communication was carried out by the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-
19 Handling.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that risk communication is an
essential part of overcoming pandemic periods (World Health Organization, 2017).
Ideally, risk communication provides information that can help people make the right
decisions for themselves. For example, in the early days of the pandemic, the
government stated that it was not necessary to wear a mask because it was considered
ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, when the number of
infected people increased, the government announced a new statement that the citizens
must wear masks when going outside. This was very confusing for the citizens, which in
turn led to the masks scarcity on the market. This condition hindered the effectiveness
of risk communication.
Another very confusing condition is when the government did not give a firm
policy regarding the prohibition of going home for the Eid celebrations this year. At
first, the government prohibited the citizens from going home and setting a rule that
mass leave is rescheduled to the end of the year. However, the policy contradicts
President Jokowi's statement, which distinguished between "back to hometown" and
"going home." As a result, many people were confused and made inappropriate
decisions by "going back to hometown." Lee showed in his research that the
inconsistency as made by the Indonesian government is one of the factors that can
inhibit the effectiveness of risk communication (Lee, 2009).
People who violated the rules of the prohibition of going home were also caused
by the government's message, which did not simply explain the negative impact of
going home and the positive impact of not going home. So far, the government has only
informed that if the community goes home, it could transmit COVID-19 to the loved
ones in their hometown. This message was certainly less effective for people who felt
they have no symptoms. This is because they believed they did not carry the disease and
would not spread it in their hometown. The government should package the ban on
going home by giving straightforward explanations about the impact of going home and
using narratives that contain threats. This strategy is considered effective for creating
effective risk communication (Reynolds & Seeger, 2005).
Until this article was written, the situation showed that the chance for Indonesian
government risk communication to fail is higher if the government's attitude, which was
more concerned with the economy rather than the safety of the people, continues.
Moreover, the WHO has forbid to use Herd Immunity as the strategy to overcome
COVID-19. Hong Kong also did the same strategy when facing SARS. The government
urged people not to wear masks so that tourists are not afraid to visit Hong Kong. This
policy resulted in a high mortality rate due to the SARS virus and led to accusations by
the public and local media about how incompetent the Hong Kong government was in
dealing with the crisis (Lee, 2009). The crisis communication that is being carried out
by the Indonesian government at the moment will only ultimately generate antipathy
attitude of the society towards the government, which is considered to be more

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P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309 n 201

economic oriented than the safety of its society lives.

Another chance for the failure of the Indonesian government crisis
communication is the inconsistency of policy and information between the central
government and regional governments in dealing with COVID-19. The most obvious
example is related to the policy of handling COVID-19 victims and the implementation
of the Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy.

Conclusion
The public and governments differently responded when COVID-19 had been
declared as a global pandemic and a national disaster. This study has examined public
response through the COVID-19 information search on Google Trends and government
response through the Ministry of Health website.
The COVID-19 information search trend began in late January 2020 by using two
keywords, namely "Corona" and "Coronavirus." The frequency of searches increased
significantly after the Minister of Health Terawan urged the public to remain calm and
relaxed amidst the threat of COVID-19. At that time, many people were looking for
necessary information related to COVID-19, such as "what is corona" and "symptoms
of corona" because this virus is new, and they did not have the knowledge and
experience in dealing with it. In January, people also searched "whether corona has
entered Indonesia." This search was driven by public distrust of the government, which
stated COVID-19 would not be detected in Indonesia while at the same time, WHO said
it should have found positive cases in Indonesia.
In February, the COVID-19 information search began to change. The public
began to look for information related to victims, the latest updates, and the COVID-19
drug. This change of information search indicates that people need more specific
information about COVID-19 because they already had fundamental knowledge from
previous searches. An interesting finding in February is the emergence of irrelevant and
incorrect information that circulated widely in public. For example, information related
to COVID-19 drugs that have been discovered and Indonesia claimed to be immune
from the coronavirus. The two pieces of information were not proven right as of this
writing.
In March, the trend of information search also changed, along with the discovery
of the first two positive cases in Indonesia. The public was looking for more
information related to "what is corona" and "the symptoms of COVID-19," and the
frequency of the searches increased significantly. This month, the public is also looking
for more information related to the COVID-19 drugs and the COVID-19 case in Jakarta.
An interesting finding in March is that the public had made COVID-19's information
search a routine. This can be seen from the keywords used, such as "update corona
March 22", "update corona March 27", and "update corona today."
The government responded to COVID-19 by giving a series of public statements
about COVID-19 that contradicted with the principle of risk communication, including
the statement by the Minister of Health, Terawan, in January. The government was also
not transparent in conveying information and unable to provide a straightforward
explanation of the real impacts and risks that must be faced by the community if
affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, in January, the Ministry of Health, through its official website,
http://www.kemkes.go.id/, had also begun to provide information related to the origin of
the virus and how it spreads and suggest to make a healthy living community

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202 n P-ISSN: 2087-0442, E-ISSN: 2548-8309 Jurnal ASPIKOM

movement, which was appropriate information also met the needs of the community.
Notwithstanding, this information indicates the inconsistency of messages on the
website with messages delivered by public officials.
The risk communication carried out by the government in February has not
experienced much change and improvement. The government insisted that COVID-19
would not enter Indonesia. Minister of Health, Terawan, also often gave inappropriate
messages such as a suggestion to multiply prayers because praying can prevent COVID-
19 from entering Indonesia. However, the Ministry of Health's website showed
something different. This month, the Ministry of Health website provided updates on
the global COVID-19 case, Indonesia's preparations for dealing with COVID-19, and
the protocol and regulation of COVID-19 in Indonesia.
In March, the government began to fix its information communication regarding
COVID-19. This was triggered by the discovery of the first two positive cases in
Indonesia in early March. The improvement of government crisis communication began
with the formation of the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Handling as the
only official representation of the government in conveying all information related to
COVID-19.
The results of this study can serve as a foothold to conduct future research by
exploring the inconsistencies of messages between the central government and regional
governments as well as government communication channels in the times of crisis in the
media in Indonesia by using quantitative methods and content analysis approaches. The
future research will be able to provide a picture of government public communication
direction and channel in times of crisis as lesson learned and object of study in the
future.

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