The language of crisis: spatiotemporal effects of COVID-19 pandemic dynamics on health crisis communications by political leaders

In times of crisis, communication by leaders is essential for mobilizing an effective public response. During the COVID-19 pandemic, compliance with public health guidelines has been critical for the prevention of infections and deaths. We assembled a corpus of over 1500 pandemic-related speeches, containing over 4 million words, delivered by all 50 US state governors during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed the semantic, grammatical and linguistic-complexity properties of these speeches, and examined their relationships to COVID-19 case rates over space and time. We found that as COVID-19 cases rose, governors used stricter language to issue guidance, employed greater negation to defend their actions and highlight prevailing uncertainty, and used more extreme descriptive adjectives. As cases surged to their highest levels, governors used shorter words with fewer syllables. Investigating and understanding such characteristic responses to stress is important for improving effective public communication during major health crises.

Finnish and South Korean Practices as a Basis for Finding Universal Approaches to Crisis Communications During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article represents the analysis of crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Finland and the Republic of Korea. Having considered the practices of crisis communications in both countries belonging to different cultures and different continents, the author identifies general approaches, suggesting that they are not dictated solely by the peculiarities of the respective culture, but may well be considered universal and recommended for use in other countries. The article provides five universal recommendations for building crisis communications in the modern world, formulated on the basis of these approaches. A formula for effective crisis communications is also proposed, in which trust is represented as a coefficient that multiplies all communicative efforts of the authorities aimed at responding to a pandemic. This study is based on relevant scientific sources and the results of (1) in-depth interviews conducted in March – October 2021 with ordinary citizens, communication experts, journalists and government officials in Finland and South Korea, (2) analysis of the results of quantitative research conducted in 2020 by the University of Helsinki (Finland), (3) materials provided by the NHI Academy (South Korea), (4) official documents of Finland and South Korea.

Communication Tools to Protect Brand Reputation

The article actualizes the problem of developing a strategy and tactics for protecting a brand’s reputation in a crisis situation. The key elements of a crisis communication plan are described, tools are analyzed that help to reduce the reputational costs of an organization in a crisis. The virtualization of communications and the expansion of network interactions necessitate the use of the potential of modern media for wider coverage of target audiences in order to strengthen brand reputation. It is shown that the effective management of information flows, the use of PR technologies in new media along with traditional methods of organizing crisis communications in new media makes it possible to reduce reputational risks to a minimum. Implementation of the policy of active Internet presence through the organization and management of network communications forms another basis for successfully overcoming crisis phenomena, correcting reputation, increasing awareness, and ensuring a more stable brand position.

Utilizing Social Media for Information Dispersal during Local Disasters: The Communication Hub Framework for Local Emergency Management

In today’s society, the use of social media has increased the public’s desire to receive information quickly and to be able to interact with communicators. During a disaster, the trend to turn to social media for information has risen in popularity. Society’s reliance on social media and quick access to information has led the field of emergency management and the role of a Public Information Officer to adapt to include social media as a crisis communication channel for information dispersal. Existing frameworks for the use of social media as a channel for crisis communications provide guidance for emergency management agencies across all levels of government but fail to account for the varying access to communication resources at the local level. Due to the differing access to communication resources and unique relationships with stakeholders at the local level, there is a need for guidance on how local emergency management agencies can use social media to disperse essential information. The proposed Communication Hub Framework utilizes local emergency management professionals’ relationships with key community stakeholders to aid in the distribution of essential information to community members via social media during a disaster.

Effective Management of Crisis Communications

In a view of the fact that in modern realities of post-industrial information society, the share of intangible assets in the companies' value has significantly increased. The monetized value of an organization's reputation is a part of such assets which is mainly determined by external communications had arised an issue of ensuring reputation security that has become especially relevant. One of justifications for need to apply crisis communication management is also changed direction of modern business. The reason for the change in modern concepts of effective business management was the new criteria for the service sector efficiency, which is a consequence of intense competition inherent in this highly profitable field of activity, which increases the importance of reputation issues. In turn, the abstract concept of a company's reputation is formed by specific parameters that are important for target audiences and are expressed in the numerical characteristics of the value of intangible assets. Considering the fact that intangible assets often make up a significant part of the companies' value and determine their financial performance, the issues of managing the value of these assets represent one of the most responsible tasks of modern management. There is a definition of the concepts of crisis, crisis communication and communication management as an integral component of crisis management of an organization is given in the terminology of leading Russian and foreign academics. The paper shows the successful result which is critically dependent on communication management effectiveness. Thus, the subject of the study is crisis communication management; the goal is to build a model for analyzing the effectiveness of managing crisis communications. The achieving method of that is to use a mathematical apparatus similar to the apparatus of multi-discriminant analysis (MDA) of Professor Edward Altman. The scientific novelty consists in the application of numerical methods for analyzing the effectiveness of crisis communications, and the result is in describing a model for analyzing the effectiveness of managing crisis communications. The use of the model for analyzing effectiveness of crisis communication management would provide an organization with the opportunity not to lose the achieved level of capitalization, provided that the reputation/communication component is effectively used in its crisis management.

ANTI-CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS TERMS OF PRESERVENCE THE COMPANY'S REPUTATION DURING QUARANTINE

The purpose of the article is related to the search for new anti-crisis tools and methods to protect and support the company's reputation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reputation strategy does not always take into account new social approaches to consumer communication in the modern online environment. The methodology consists of the application of empirical methods of included observation. This methodological approach allows us to reveal and analyze certain threats to the reputation management of enterprises that are formed under the influence of the emergence of specific consumer habits in quarantine conditions of self-isolation, and to identify problems of a reputation as trust in business in the conditions of hypersensitivity of consumers during the corona-crisis. The scientific novelty of the work is to expand the understanding of anti-crisis communications to preserve the company's reputation. Conclusions. The reputational risks of companies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic are growing and becoming unpredictable due to the sensitivity of consumers to the brand. Active social campaigns of organizations allow not only to provide anti-crisis management but also to protect the reputation as preventive methods of countering potential crises. By identifying the basic anti-crisis capabilities of organizations, communication solutions were found to protect the reputation from crises. Of course, a reputation crisis can affect any company, so an instant readiness to respond to potential threats, choosing the right channels for informing the audience, can help prevent long-term consequences. Ignoring the negative because of incompetence or fear of harming the company's reputation can lead to disastrous consequences. Therefore, the willingness to find and start working with a source of negativity, shifting the focus of the audience's attention to a positive agenda, a related information channel, or resolving the situation will not only stop the flow of negativity towards the company but also use the resulting case to improve its reputation.

Public Relations Strategy Analysis Crisis Communications

Crisis communication is the exchange of information between an organization and its constituents during and after the occurrence of a crisis. This research employs a descriptive technique and a qualitative method. Techniques for data gathering include observation, interviewing, and documenting. The aim of this research is to conduct an empirical examination of the execution of strategies and supporting and inhibiting variables in crisis communication in public relations. The findings of this research suggest that a crisis communication plan should be suitable and swift in order to overcome public reaction and avoid a protracted crisis communication. Communication in Times of Crisis Pre-Crisis management is carried out by Public Relations, namely in the preparation (Planning) stage, which includes the establishment of a Public Relations team responsible for providing information, a clean-up and executive summery formation team, and Crisis-Response, namely the manufacturing stage. Press releases, clarifications, establishing stakeholder and media relations, and finally, Post-Crisis, namely the advancement of Public Relations not only to improve the company's image but also to improve performance, press conferences, and dissemination of publications are also implemented to improve things in the short and long term through programs