Templated Crisis Communication for People With Disabilities, Access and Functional Needs

Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act being more than 30 years old, many government institutions fail to fully support their constituents, and provide understandable and actionable crisis communications before, during, and after emergencies and disasters. When residents do not effectively receive, understand, and act on crisis communications in a timely manner, life safety issues can occur. People may choose not to evacuate when necessary or lack the information for properly sheltering-in-place. These and other bad decisions can be deadly. Crisis communications, as a subset of risk communications, should be aligned with all the disaster phase cycles—the before, during, and after stages of disasters and crises—so that impacted residents obtain complete information they can use. U.S. government websites, including posted crisis communications public releases, must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) under Title II and they should use templated crisis communications available in other languages, English-only audio recordings, and videos of American Sign Language.

Perceived Health Impacts, Sources of Information and Individual Actions to Address Air Quality in Two Cities in Nigeria

Poor air quality (PAQ) has serious effects on the environment, climate change, and human health. This study investigated the perceived health impacts of PAQ in two cities in Nigeria (Abuja and Enugu), including whether PAQ may have an interaction with COVID-19 infection and intensity. A recent report published in the Lancet has pointed to the complexity of the health care system in Nigeria and a lack of data on disease burden, so the research in this paper took a self-reporting (perceptual) approach to exploring the health impacts of PAQ. The research also sought to explore the main sources of information used by people to inform them about air quality (AQ) and the actions they are likely to take to address PAQ. The results imply that many of the respondents in the two cities perceived their health to be adversely affected by PAQ and that PAQ worsens both the chances of infection and the intensity of COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, older people were found to be more vulnerable to the health impacts of PAQ. Most respondents, especially younger ones, obtained their information on AQ via electronic media (internet, social media) rather than printed media. Respondents considered that the primary action to address PAQ is proper waste management. Paying the government to address PAQ was regarded as the least likely action, although the government was acknowledged as having a key responsibility. © 2023 by the authors.

Conclusion

The health risks of socially vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the sick, and the disabled, are significantly elevated under the COVID-19 epidemic. Therefore, the different factors affecting the use of information technology by socially vulnerable groups under COVID-19 are explored at the level of the use of emerging information technology. The impact on the information behavior of socially vulnerable groups under COVID-19 is also explored at the level of information behavior, including health information needs, the digital divide phenomenon, and the utilization of public information services. Based on the above findings, the current status of information behavior research for socially vulnerable groups is combined. Future research directions of information technology and information behavior for socially vulnerable groups are proposed. First, to improve the research theory of information behavior of socially vulnerable groups regarding information technology. Second, to apply big data technology and data analysis technology to explore the information technology adoption behavior of socially vulnerable groups in-depth. Third, to construct the information behavior model of socially vulnerable groups based on empirical research cases. Fourth, to use information technology for socially vulnerable groups according to information technology and the barriers faced by socially vulnerable groups in using information technology, and to provide strategies for using information technology that meet the needs of socially vulnerable groups. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Difficulties of Vulnerable Groups in Accessing the Public Information Service During COVID-19 Pandemic in China

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic seriously threatens people's lives and health all over the world. Public information service is an important way for the public to understand the pandemic development and pandemic prevention and control measures. However, more people become vulnerable rather than the typical vulnerable groups due to the pandemic encounter difficulties in accessing public information services. To better help vulnerable people during the emergencies, based on related vulnerable groups theory, this chapter identifies two types of vulnerable groups in China. It collects information from news, journal papers, conference papers and other relevant perspectives to examine the difficulties that vulnerable people have encountered. Moreover, this chapter puts forward some suggestions from the aspect of policies and regulations, technologies and information systems, service content, and operating mechanism of public information services to better meet the information needs of vulnerable people. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Digital Native Media in the Face of Journalistic Security

In the scenario marked by digitalization, digital media have found spaces that allow them to face labor problems and at the same time face the risks and vulnerability that threaten the security of journalists. Therefore, this research is established to know some issues related to security: economic limitations of access to public information, censorship, and self-censorship in the journalistic exercise in Ecuador. The observation was carried out within the framework of the pandemic unleashed by the presence of COVID-19 and its variants. For the execution of the research, the qualitative methodology was applied with semi-structured interviews to investigative journalists of consolidated digital native media. Among the conclusions are noted that the pandemic brought with it labor precariousness;however, digital media have managed to maintain themselves with external funds or own resources. For the journalistic exercise, public information becomes a severe concern because access has been restricted, and there is little transparency in its disclosure. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Etnografía de las conferencias de prensa de Andrés Manuel López Obrador y análisis de su lista de reproducción en YouTube (2018-2022)

Andrés Manuel López Obrador's morning press conferences are an unusual political communi- cation strategy in Mexico and the world, through which the President interacts with the media, other political actors and citizens. The objective of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of Las mañaneras (as they are popularly known) and to reflect on the strategies deployed by the Presi- dency with them to influence the public agenda.In the first place, following Dell Hymes model, a general ethnography of this communicative act is presented, carried out from monitoring carried out between December 2018 and April 2022. In second place, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels of a multimodal corpus made up of the entries (thumbnail images and titles) of the videos of 848 conferences hosted on YouTube are analyzed. The results show the evolution of La mañanera as a discursive genre, as well as the importance that issues like the Covid pandemic, insecurity, migration, the reactivation of PEMEX, the development of infrastructure, the relationship with the US, and the fight against corruption have had for the current administration. However, various semiotic and discursive elements of the YouTube page focus their attention on the figure of AMLO and reinforce the presidentialism that characterizes Mexican political system.[Las conferencias de prensa matutinas de Andrés Manuel López Obrador son una inusitada estrate- gia de comunicación política en México y el mundo, por medio de la cual el Presidente interactúa con los medios, otros actores políticos y la ciudadanía. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las ca- racterísticas de Las mañaneras (como popularmente se les conoce) y reflexionar sobre las estrategias desplegadas por la Presidencia con ellas para influir en la agenda pública. En primer lugar, a partir del modelo de Dell Hymes, se presenta una etnografía general de este acto comunicativo, realizada a partir de monitoreos entre diciembre de 2018 y abril de 2022;en segundo lugar, se analizan los niveles sintáctico, semántico y pragmático de un corpus multimodal conformado por las entradas (imágenes en miniatura y títulos) de los videos de 848 conferencias alojadas en Youtube. Los re- sultados muestran la evolución de La mañanera como género discursivo, así como la importancia que, para la actual administración, ha tenido la pandemia por Covid, la inseguridad, la migración, la reactivación de PEMEX, el desarrollo de infraestructura, la relación con EUA y el combate a la corrupción. No obstante, diversos elementos semióticos y discursivos de la página de Youtube centran la atención en la figura de AMLO y refuerzan el presidencialismo que caracteriza al sistema político mexicano.

Digital Native Media in the Face of Journalistic Security

In the scenario marked by digitalization, digital media have found spaces that allow them to face labor problems and at the same time face the risks and vulnerability that threaten the security of journalists. Therefore, this research is established to know some issues related to security: economic limitations of access to public information, censorship, and self-censorship in the journalistic exercise in Ecuador. The observation was carried out within the framework of the pandemic unleashed by the presence of COVID-19 and its variants. For the execution of the research, the qualitative methodology was applied with semi-structured interviews to investigative journalists of consolidated digital native media. Among the conclusions are noted that the pandemic brought with it labor precariousness;however, digital media have managed to maintain themselves with external funds or own resources. For the journalistic exercise, public information becomes a severe concern because access has been restricted, and there is little transparency in its disclosure. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Transparency of Public Information on the Websites of Municipalities as a Tool for Civic Auditing During COVID-19 of 2020

Access to public information is the basis for effective citizen participation and the strengthening of democracy. This research was conducted using a quantitative approach at an exploratory level, using a mixed documentary and field study strategy with the aim of presenting the transparency levels of public information in the municipal websites of different capitals of Ecuador during COVID-19. During July 2021, a questionnaire of 13 questions was applied, which consisted on two open and 11 closed questions, the latter with dichotomous and Likert scales. The sample consisted of 343 individuals. Among the most relevant results, the interest of citizens (62.10%) in using the municipalities' webpages to obtain information stands out;however, they express the limited availability of information as well as its quality (clarity and reliability), especially during the health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the needs of the population (95.30%) for having means and tools that allow the different social groups and actors to have access to public information, in order to exercise effective participation and civic auditing of public affairs. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

EPROACH: A Population Vaccination Game for Strategic Information Design to Enable Responsible COVID Reopening

The COVID-19 lockdowns have created a significant socioeconomic impact on our society. In this paper, we propose a population vaccination game framework, called EPROACH, to design policies for reopenings that guarantee post-opening public health safety. In our framework, a population of players decides whether to vaccinate based on the public and private information they receive. The reopening is captured by the switching of the game state. The insights obtained from our framework include the appropriate vaccination coverage threshold for safe-reopening and information-based methods to incentivize individual vaccination decisions. In particular, our framework bridges the modeling of the strategic behaviors of the populations and the spreading of infectious diseases. This integration enables finding the threshold which guarantees a disease-free epidemic steady state under the population's Nash equilibrium vaccination decisions. The equilibrium vaccination decisions depend on the information received by the agents. It makes the steady-state epidemic severity controllable through information. We find that the externalities created by reopening lead to the coordination of the players in the population and result in a unique Nash equilibrium. We use numerical experiments to corroborate the results and illustrate the design of public information for responsible reopening. © 2022 American Automatic Control Council.

Modeling the formation of the public's information needs in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how the public formed their need for information in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. Exploring the formation of information needs can reveal why the public's information needs differ and provide insights on targeted information service during health crises at an essential level. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 46 participants and analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Concepts, sub-categories and categories were developed, and a model was built to examine how the public formed the need for information about the pandemic. Findings: The authors found that participants were stimulated by information asymmetry, severity of the pandemic and regulations to control the pandemic, which triggered their perceptions of information credibility, threat and social approval. After the participants perceived that there was a threat, it activated their basic needs and they actively formed the need for information based on cognitive activities. Moreover, information delivered by different senders resulted in a passive need for information. Participants' individual traits also influenced their perceptions after being stimulated. Research limitations/implications: Long-term follow-up research is needed to help researchers identify more detailed perspectives and do comparative studies. Besides, this study conducted interviews through WeChat voice calls and telephone calls, and might be limited compared with face-to-face interviews. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide theoretical contributions to the information needs research and practical implications for information services and public health management. Originality/value: There is little systematic research on how the public formed information needs in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Transparência Pública e Accountability informações em tempo de pandemia

Apresenta avaliação dos portais de transparência das capitais brasileiras e do Distrito Federal, com relação às características que permitem a realização da accountability e a contratações emergenciais em resposta à pandemia da COVID-19, adotando a metodologia de coleta de dados da Transparência Internacional Brasil. A pesquisa baseou-se no método indiciário, que prioriza as evidências ou indícios e tem caráter exploratório e qualitativo, com estratégia documental. Os resultados revelam que a maioria das capitais brasileiras e o Distrito Federal atendem às características que permitem a realização da accountability. Pode-se dizer que os portais das capitais brasileiras e do Distrito Federal são transparentes, com exceção do portal de transparência dos municípios de Cuiabá e Maceió. No contexto da COVID-19, os portais de transparência se mostram capazes de oferecer transparência e accountability para que os cidadãos possam ter conhecimento dos recursos públicos alocados nas ações de combate à pandemia.Alternate : It presents an evaluation of the transparency portals of Brazilian capitals and the Federal District, regarding the characteristics that allow accountability, in relation to emergency hiring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting the data collection methodology of Transparency International Brazil. The research was based on the evidentiary method, which prioritizes evidence or traces and has an exploratory and qualitative character, with a documentary strategy. The results reveal that most Brazilian capitals and the Federal District meet the characteristics that allow accountability. It can be said that the portals of Brazilian capitals and the Federal District are transparent, with the exception of the transparency portal of the municipalities of Cuiabá and Maceió. In the context of COVID-19, transparency portals are capable of offering transparency and accountability so that citizens can be aware of the public resources allocated to actions to combat the pandemic

Impacts of COVID-19 on the post-pandemic behaviour: The role of mortality threats and religiosity

This study explores the influence of intra-pandemic perceptions on travellers' post-pandemic hotel booking behaviour among crisis-resistant travellers and crisis-sensitive groups. It also examines the moderating role of mortality threats and religiosity on these behaviours. We collected quantitative data utilising survey method via questionnaires to address various levels of the research. We used PLS-SEM to evaluate our proposed model. We collected data from 1580 who had booked hotels in Egypt. Our study indicated that intra-pandemic perception has a stronger effect on travellers’ post-pandemic hotel booking behaviours if the travellers are less religious and feel deeply threatened by the idea of their own level of mortality. Moreover, it revealed that intra-pandemic perceptions had a stronger association with post-pandemic planned behaviour for travellers who chose to cancel their hotel booking plans. Our study also indicated that emergency public information plays a critical role in influencing post-pandemic planned behaviour. Our study offers effective strategies to aid hospitality and tourism practitioners when risky and threating situations such as COVID-19 arise, specifically in the period of response and recovery.

Successful Communication During Disruptive, Crisis Situations: 14th Annual Competition Identifies Best Practices

With strategies ranging from homeschooling kits for parents and teachers to a clean commuting campaign to community toolkits in 17 languages, the winners of the 14th Annual Communicating Concepts to John and Jane Q. Public Competition illustrated best practices in how to communicate during disruptive, crisis situations. The tools and techniques used by the competition winners, showcased at the virtual Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in January 2021, epitomized the spirit of communicating complex information in an uncomplicated manner amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner of the competition was “ADOT Kids,” submitted by the Arizona Department of Transportation (DOT). With thousands of parents teleworking and homeschooling their children at the same time during the pandemic, the Arizona DOT communications team developed fun, interactive activities to educate and entertain children and spark their curiosity about the transportation system.

Citizens, doctors, politicians - who´s an expert in times of COVID-19? A survey in Austria and Germany.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore which measures and risk factors for a COVID - 19 infection are considered most important in the general population, health experts and policymakers and to assess the level of agreement across the groups from Austria and Germany. METHODS: A two-phased survey was conducted, participants were matched according to age and gender. Three different groups were asked which measures they considered most relevant in reducing a COVID-19 transmission, to determine which factors contribute most to the risk of disease, and to evaluate the level of agreement in the assessment of risk factor relevance for (a) the transmission of the disease and (b) the risk of a severe course of COVID-19. RESULTS: Risk factors for an infection that were selected from all three groups were immunosuppression/deficiency, cancer, chronic lung disease, smoking, age and working as a health care professional. Interrater agreement per population was only poor to slight and results were highly heterogeneous. CONCLUSIONS: Our survey shows a broad spectrum of opinions and the associated general uncertainty about the risk factors for infection and a severe course of disease across the groups. Profound knowledge of politicians and experts is of high relevance to provide the public with valid information to ensure cooperation fighting the pandemic. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://apps.who.int/trialsearch/ (ID: DRKS00022166). Registered 15 June 2020.

Voluntary Cyclical Distancing: A Potential Alternative to Constant Level Mandatory Social Distancing, Relying on an "Infection Weather Report".

COVID-19 has significantly changed our daily lives. Stay-at-home orders and forced closings of all non-essential businesses had a significant impact on our economy. While it is important to ensure that the healthcare system is not overwhelmed, there are many questions that remain about the efficacy of extreme social distancing, and whether there are alternatives to mandatory lockdowns. This paper analyzes the utility of various levels of social distancing, and suggests an alternative approach using voluntary distancing informed by an infectious load index or "infection weather report."

Report From Bolsonaro's Brazil: The Consequences of Ignoring Science.

Currently, the fast spread of COVID-19 is the cause of a sanitary emergency in Brazil. This situation is largely due to President Bolsonaro's denial and the uncoordinated actions between the federal and local governments. In addition, the Brazilian government has reported that it would change its method of sharing information about the pandemic. On June 6, 2020, the presentation of accumulated cases and deaths was stopped, and the Supreme Court of Brazil determined that the federal government should continue to consolidate and disseminate the accumulated figures of cases and deaths. However, doubt about the transparency of the data remained. We used data reported by the government from Situation Reports 38-209 of the World Health Organization to assess the Benford's law fulfillment as an indicator of data quality. This rapid evaluation of data quality during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil suggests that the Brazilian public health surveillance system had an acceptable performance at the beginning of the epidemic. Since the end of June, the quality of cumulative death data began to decrease and remains in that condition as of August 2020. A similar situation has existed since August, with the data of accumulated new cases.