Image Restoration Strategies for the (mis-) handling of COVID – 19 Pandemic in Greece

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak all countries around the world used several kinds of response strategies to protect public health and control the outbreak. The main aim was to stop the disease from spreading into the community and put a pressure on the health system of the countries. However, severe measures like lockdown of cities and countries brought side-crises like economic pressure on the individuals, corporations and even the state itself. Although the Greek Government was considered to have managed the first phase of the crisis in March effectively, during the aftermath of the first phase, the complete opening of the economy and tourism, the lowering of measures leaded to the increase of new cases. The increased number of cases together with the late imposition of a new lockdown, leaded to the perception of a governmental failure. This perception mobilized direct or indirect image restoration strategies by officials of the Greek Government to maintain the positive image of their handling despite the general perceptions. This paper explores the image restoration strategies used by the prime minister of Greece for the handlings of the second phase of the pandemic in Greece. The methodology used is discourse analysis with the tools of Image Restoration Strategies by Benoit (1995) from October till December 2020.

Public opinion on age stereotypes during the COVID-19 pandemic

The news media can both mirror age stereotypes held by the public, as well as contribute to constructing or amplifying them. The first risk group identified in the pandemic was older adults. They are generally not so visible in the media, but during the pandemic, they were in focus. This study analyses to what extent the public agrees with age stereotypes during the COVID-19 pandemic and what characterizes the groups that hold them. Survey data from 04/14/20-06/28/20 on a national sample (6000) of the population of Sweden is used. The results, contrary to the expectation that stereotypes of older adults should dominate the public opinion, rather the stereotype of younger people not distancing themselves enough is the most common. However, the corresponding stereotype of older adults not doing the same is the second most common. In a non-crises situation, the most common stereotype of older adults is that they have poor cognitive abilities. However, this stereotype is rare during the pandemic. The characteristic of the group that agree with the stereotypes are that they are young rather than old. There are also differences by gender, education and residential area, but they vary depending on the specific age stereotype in question.

When the Pandemic Impacts the Most Vulnerable: Analyzing Crisis and Risk Messages Aimed at Latinx Individuals about COVID-19

Guided by the IDEA model, this pilot study analyzes the perceptions about coronavirus (COVID-19) messages created to be distributed to the Latinx community in the United States. This study has been conducted to test the research questions proposed and the instruments so a second study can be executed based on Latinx populations in Florida communities. A survey was distributed among students from different ethnicities. A comparative analysis was run with the responses from the students who identified as Latinx and the students who identified as non-Latinx. The results demonstrated that components such as internalization, explanation, and action are present in the messages distributed to both groups. The results also showed that only two dimensions of the IDEA model's components demonstrated significant differences between both groups. This research suggests that message tailoring could improve message effectiveness within each area of the IDEA model.

The IDEA Model as an Effective Instructional Crisis and Risk Communication Framework to Analyze the CDC’s Messages Aimed at Hispanics in the COVID-19 Era

This study explores, through a thematic analysis, the messages published in Spanish in the Holiday Celebrations and Small Gatherings [Celebraciones y pequeñas reuniones por las fiestas] section of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's website (CDC). To analyze these messages, this study used the IDEA model. The conclusions suggest CDC prioritized internalization and action messages over distribution and explanation in this section of the website. The conclusions also show that although the CDC incorporated all elements of the IDEA model in the messages, the information shared was a mere translation of the English version of the Holiday Celebrations and Small Gatherings section of the website, showing thus, that the messages did not seem to be created to appeal to Hispanics intentionally. Suggestions are offered to improve the communications delivered by the CDC to the Hispanic community in the United States.

2021 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference Program

2021 International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference Program

Stakeholders’ Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Blueprint for Health Crisis Communication

In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. This qualitative phenomenological study of undergraduate communication students in a 4-year public university explored how as primary stakeholders for universities, students responded to the pandemic. Using Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), the researchers explored students’ perceptions of the risk of contracting COVID-19 and the protective actions recommended, and how perceptions influenced protective action decision making and behavioral responses. This study fills a gap in the crisis communication literature by focusing on stakeholder perspectives rather than the typical organizational responses to crises; it affirmed the sequential nature of PADM and suggests it should be expanded to include the sense of loss stakeholders experience during a health crisis. It also presents a blueprint for communicating with stakeholders during a health crisis.

The Onslaught of Crisis Leadership Advice: Sifting Through Popular Leadership Sources in the COVID-19 Era

This study critiques COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse in authoritative sources for leadership advice including Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School’s COVID-19 Business Impact Center, and Real Leaders. Two central lines of inquiry drive this study: First, what are the pervasive practice-based recommendations typified in COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse? Second, whose interest does the COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse serve? Conclusions question the widespread practicality of advice and argue that advice functions to reassert the power dynamic of authoritative texts and super leaders over popular crisis leadership press. Furthermore, advice tends to promote command-and-control leadership with implications for taking advantage of the chaotic, vulnerable moments of crises to promote undemocratic change.

An Ethical Framework for Communicating Public Health Crises: A Case Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic

These Identifying the traditional principle of medical ethics of autonomy as a major factor that hinders epidemiological investigation and the understanding of a novel virus, this study adopts an ethical framework, consisting of the axes of ethical devotions (local, national, continental, and global) and ethical reasoning approaches (deontological and teleological), to analyze the approaches of communicating global public health crises like the COVID pandemic. The argument is made to endorse a global devotion with teleological reasoning in a large-scale public health crisis that needs global collaboration to cope with.

Police Reform: Understanding Interspersed Social Influences and the Propagation of Public Policy During COVID19

Social influence is described as a communications theory which involves three psychological processes: compliance, identification and internalization. The theory applies supplemental data from social psychology frameworks consisting of normative conformity and informative conformity research. Individuals can be influenced to demonstrate social behaviors and many of us can be influenced to change our behaviors depending on our psychological or social needs at that time. Propaganda is another social influence that affects crisis communications. These topics will be discussed to better understand social influence and social behaviors while also analyzing legitimate authority interpositions during the coronavirus global crisis. Further, this research task will examine observational research data, compare antecedent events that prompted these discussions, to support a theoretic approach that consists of organizing ontological perspectives to adduce an analysis of understanding intervals of interspersed social influences resulting in the propagation of public policy, particularly, police reform.

Communicating Crisis to Youth: The role of caregiver crisis communication in youth sensemaking and recovery

A qualitative study was conducted of the response to student deaths by the administrators of two rural high schools. The events are looked at in the dual context of incident management and communication processes, using Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory. Interviews were conducted with administrators and with members of a student support team that responded to these and similar events. The study finds that negotiation of meaning that takes place between students, and between students and caregivers, is key in students’ processing of the event that they are experiencing. It can also equip them to be more resilient to traumatic events in the future.