Abstract

In the era of digital media, national security has emerged as one of the most vulnerable areas to threats in the aftermath of a crisis. Due to its fragile nature, scholars have focused on the antecedents to strengthen national security in the invisible environment known as cyberspace. Guided by the Social-mediated Crisis Communication model (SMCC), this study aims to examine how characteristics of social media mediates the relationship between trust in public organization and national security.  Using an online survey, a total of 373 responses from Malaysian university students representing youth category were received through stratified random and convenience sampling. Data were analyzed for validation using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), followed by hypotheses testing through structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS. The findings of the study reveal that trust, characteristics of social media, and perceived national security are found to be significantly inter-related. Characteristics of social media have been found to partially mediate the relationship between trust and perceived national security. The implication of the study suggests that the characteristics of social media that being utilized by public organizations as their medium to disseminate the crisis communication messages to the public is essential to restore trust and install favorable perception toward national security.