THE ROLE OF INFORMATION QUALITY AND CREDIBILITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN CRISIS INTERVENTION COMMUNICATION: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA

This study investigates how social media information quality, credibility, user engagement, digital literacy, and psychological resilience influence crisis intervention communication among university students in Yunnan, China. The objective was to understand how content attributes and individual capacities shape students’ ability to access, evaluate, and act on crisis-related information on platforms such as WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo. Using structural equation modeling, results indicate that digital literacy strongly predicts crisis communication (β = 0.870, p < 0.001) and moderates the effects of social media credibility (β = 0.543, p < 0.001) and quality (β = 0.442, p < 0.001), while psychological resilience enhances communication (β = 0.372, p < 0.001) and strengthens the influence of credibility (β = 0.329, p < 0.001) and quality (β = 0.382, p < 0.001). Credibility affects both engagement (β = 0.240, p < 0.05) and communication (β = 0.588, p < 0.001), whereas quality influences communication (β = 0.215, p = 0.003) but not engagement. User engagement mediates the effects of content features on communication. The study’s novelty lies in integrating content characteristics with user-level moderators and validating engagement as a mediator in a non-Western academic context. Findings suggest that effective crisis communication requires credible, high-quality content supported by digital literacy and resilience. Practically, universities and crisis managers should emphasize interactive content, digital skills, and resilience-building to optimize student preparedness and coordinated responses.