Strategic Science Communication: The “Flatten the Curve” Metaphor in COVID-19 Public Risk Messaging

This chapter discusses the emergence of the “flatten the curve” metaphor in the context of COVID-19 science communication strategies and its role in public messaging efforts that sought to inform world populations and mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Faced with the unexpected arrival and spread of the new coronavirus, governments worldwide have responded with mitigation policies to contain the dissemination of the disease. Prevention behaviours, such as washing hands frequently and maintaining social distancing, were thoroughly communicated to the public. However, despite the quality of the communication campaigns implemented, it is always hard to change people’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours, even more so in the short term, as is required in a global health crisis. In pandemics, the literature on risk and crisis communication suggests that messages sent by authorities should enable the understanding of complex information, avoid misinformation, and promote the adoption of adequate behaviours. This assertion presumes that, ideally, communication campaigns follow a set of strategic decisions on target audiences, communication objectives, key messages, adequate channels and message format. Although the emergence of the “flatten of the curve” metaphor did not follow a classical strategic approach, it seems to have incorporated a set of valuable communicational principles that explain why it has become the defining message of about COVID-19. This well-known chart grew into a science strategic communication device, conveying complex scientific information in an engaging but also clear way to the general public. It is, therefore, a good example to advogate for a strategic science communication approach.

Improvisation Takes a Lot of Planification: Strategic Communication and Sociopolitical Contemporary Activism

Activists are producers of strategic communication for social change and play a mediating role regarding (re)producing and challenging established cultural meanings. In a global context of high volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, contemporary activism needs to introduce significant innovations in current mass mobilizations. Otherwise, it falls into the risk of becoming irrelevant. Within this context, new forms of creative activism are arousing, which are linked to the contextual strategic approach to the repertoire of disruptive tactics and techniques. Strategic communication, or the intentional use of communication by organizations to promote their mission, is inevitably associated with the exercise of power in negotiations among different social actors. In this essay, we argue that the strategical communication approaches that have successfully established mass consumption as a way of life can be used to give public voice to sociopolitical contemporary activists and to increase shared global views for social change, such as the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. We do it so through a literature review on this topic, followed by a description of practical examples. Strategic communication plays a crucial role when it comes to inducing social change. Its applicability in an organizational context is relevant for activist movements as it facilitates the organization of collective action, the call for civic participation and interaction with other social and political institutions. The use of strategic approaches to communication in an organizational context, such as the management of identity, image and reputation, and the approach to political power through citizen lobby, can be ways for contemporary activist groups to better mobilize, communicate with their supporters, and seek to influence political decisions. Reflecting and planning before acting or reacting can contribute to the achievement of a voice and legitimacy to operate in the public sphere.

Developing Effective Health Communication Campaigns

Health communication campaigns have been used to address many of the most prevalent non-communicable disease risk factors, such as physical inactivity. Typically, campaigns are shared via mass media to reach a high proportion of the population and at a low cost per head. However, the messages shared are in direct competition with other campaigns, such as product marketing, which can result in the campaign not being seen adequately to lead to behaviour change. Moreover, as health campaigns are shared widely, the messages may not be understood or considered appropriate by certain audiences due to their broad nature. This can lead to unintended consequences, such as inadvertent social norming of the risk behaviour. To improve the success of health communication campaigns, they should be based on theory, with the theory of planned behaviour, the elaboration likelihood model, and the extended parallel process model, three of the most widely used. Such theories highlight the importance of targetting a campaign to the audience. Targetting a health communication campaign involves considering the audience in the development and dissemination of the message. Campaigns could also be co-developed with the audience in question to ensure relevance. Digital technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used to tailor messages to the target audience effectively. Examples of targetted and broad health communication campaigns are presented.

Social Movement Activism Analysis of Strategic: Communication in Context

Social movement activism presumes strategic communication processes by which groups achieve extra-governmental changes to public and private policy through public pressure. Such pressure presumes conditions of five kinds: strain, mobilization, confrontation, negotiation, and resolution. To explain this process, several cases will be offered but especially the U.S. civil rights movement and the activist career of John Lewis. Social movement activism is a test of wills, a test of character, strength, fact, value, identity, identification, and place

Text-Mining Approach to Political Communication on Twitter: The Analysis of the Discourse of Spain’s Principal Political Parties During the European Parliament Elections in 2019

Twitter has become a powerful tool of political communication, that now plays a significant role during elections, especially in countries such as Spain, where use of digital media is extended widely throughout society. Digital democracy is based to a significant extent on the quality of public discourse and persuasion implemented in the digital messages contained in tweets. Text mining methods applied to tweets during the 2019 European elections made it possible to examine content, frequently used keywords and expressions, sentiment and tone of the political discourse of the main Spanish political parties. The objective of the analysis is to determine the scope and thematic focus of the political discourse on Twitter and make an inter-party comparison. The results reveal that Spanish politics were a much bigger focus than the European perspective and the social outlook pursued by the left wing turned out to be more visible than other proposals. Fragmentised discourse in the case of the populist parties focused on concrete problems to be resolved, whereas the main approach of Twitter politics was the fight against right-wing rivals. It is possible to conclude rather low maturity in terms of democratic public discourse with the high persuasive components integrated within tweets and a self-appraising attitude.

Conveyed Religion: A Strategic Communication Proposal for Religious Institutions

Contemporary society has fostered a period of transformation in religious communication. Globalisation propels a communicated religion that forges a dialogue with its followers and with society as a whole. In this chapter, we aim to describe the existing situation, analysing religions as a social fact in a global society that is shaped by the movement of people and the proliferation of (traditional and new) media channels. From this perspective, religious institutions are viewed as living organisations that must accept the current context and need to develop a strategic communication plan. The chapter begins with a review of a theoretical corpus on religion, communication, and society, intersecting various reflections with theories of strategic communication and crisis communication. It aims to respond to the following question: how can religious institutions use strategic communication in the contemporary world? This is a qualitative investigation, empirically supported by interviews with two prominent figures from the Catholic Church, as a case study. The principal results of this research, based on the observation of contemporary society, include the importance of correct use of new media for strategic communication, and continuous training in order to improve strategic communication plans, that should operate on a continuous basis.

Crisis Communication as Course Correction: Communicative Efforts Revive Goals

It is common to think of crisis communication as a reactive form of communication intending to protect an organization from a threat. Some research and media focus on crisis communication serve to create that interpretation. While the crisis response often is reactive, crisis communication also can be proactive and, more importantly, should be considered a valuable resource for pursuing strategic organizational outcomes (Coombs & Holladay, 2015). Crises posse threats to achieving organizational outcomes by pushing organizations off course. Crisis communication can be considered a means of correcting the course and reviving the pursuit of organizational goals/outcomes. Crises disrupt strategy by detracting from the pursuit of organizational outcomes (Bundy et al., 2016). A crisis demands management’s attention and the application of organizational resources to that situation (Milburn et al., 1983). A crisis can create a “distraction” from the pursuit of organizational goals — can impeded strategy. Moreover, a crisis can erode critical organization goals such as maintaining positive social evaluations and the pursuit of revenue (e.g., Chen et al., 2009; Coombs, 2007). This chapter considers how crisis communication can be used as a form of strategic communication designed to return managers to the pursuit of organizational goals.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Brand Advocacy: A Reflection in a Time of Crisis

Web 2.0 offers users the unprecedented possibility of taking part in an uninterrupted flow of global communication that encompasses a growing number of people within its network and connection points (Ferreira, 2002). Users/consumers find here a space governed by a logic of connectivity, openness, conversation, and participation. These dimensions are exponentially enhanced by the growing ubiquity of social networks, whose interactive and collaborative architecture has shifted power to user communities (Mollen & Wilson, 2010). This renewed communicational context creates several challenges for organizations, converted into brands whose value depends on the rankings that measure their reputation with the public, who have become avid consumers and producers of information (Kotler et al., 2017). Thus, the process of stakeholder empowerment and the consequent loss of control by companies over the dissemination and circulation of information that concerns them have reinforced the vital need for companies to build and maintain close relationships with their audiences, in which concern for the opinions, needs, and concerns of the latter is clear (Antunes & Rita, 2008). Therefore, communities are increasingly demanding of the perceived contribution of business to the sustained and sustainable development of society, “in the face of the worsening of a wide range of economic, social and environmental problems on a global scale, and the governments’ inability to address them” (Serpa & Fourneau, 2007, p. 97). That said, it is imperative for organizations to adopt an ethical and transparent conduct, which will enable them to gain customer confidence and support over the longer term (Pérez & Bosque, 2015). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies can be seen, then, as important drivers of the desired consumer loyalty to brand and further online advocacy.

Systematic Review of Recent Literature on Strategic Communication Analysis of the Scientific: Production in Web of Science (2011-2020)

In recent years, there have been numerous studies addressing strategic communication from different angles. These have helped to better define and contextualize the object of study. The present work constitutes a systematic review of the most recent scientific output (2011–2020) on strategic communication. The main objective was to analyse that output quantitatively, to determine whether the number of publications has really grown, from which scientific fields they have originated, the most prolific authors, and the most cited works. In addition, the latest works from the field of communication are analysed, with the aim of summarizing the latest research trends on the object of study. For this reason, the analysis is limited to the works contained in the main databases of the Web of Science (WoS), as this is one of the bibliographic databases of reference. An advanced terminological search was carried out, and the results were analysed quantitatively. From that resulting population of 460 documents, a sample of 89 was extracted and subjected to a brief qualitative analysis. Among the results, there stands out that scientific production on the subject in the period studied has grown exponentially compared to previous periods. Most of the studies are published in English and originate from the fields of communication, business, and management, although, it being such a cross-sectional topic, there are 82 WoS categories represented. The authors were mainly from the USA, Spain, Germany, and England, and they published in 274 journals, with the Journal of Communication Management, Public Relations Review, and Corporate Communications standing out.