ABSTRACT
While social media has grown in popularity in today's society, and has facilitated the dissemination of accurate and valuable information, it also raises the equally pressing concern of rampant proliferation of rumors and false news. The recent global outbreak of COVID-19 witnessed the explosion of fake and misleading health rumors in social media. Governments are tasked with providing the public with the right information to influence their behavior and engagement in emergency decision-making and optimally address the risks of rumor influence. Therefore, it is important to choose an appropriate response strategy in a rumor-induced health crisis. This study has two main objectives: to identify effective rumor response strategies by the government to stem the spread of rumor during a health crisis, and to examine the role of anxiety in this process using the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Online quasi-experimental data was collected from 245 Chinese participants who were exposed to a false social media rumor that potato chips could spread COVID-19 and were randomly assigned to one of three rumor response strategies (denial, refute or attack). According to the one-way ANOVA results, the effect of the refute response on rumor-related behavior is the most positive, whereas the effects of denial and attack are not significantly different. The results of the mediation model using PROCESS Macro reveal that anxiety partially mediates the relationship between rumor response strategies and rumor-related behaviors (rumor dissemination intentions and behavior intention to consume products);the refute strategy reduces public anxiety and has a positive effect on public behavioral intentions. This study is relevant to COVID-19 rumor research with regard to government rumor response strategies on social media using data-based descriptive and quantitative analysis. © SEARCH Journal 2023.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic and global responses to this crisis reveal the changing landscape of global health governance. As countries around the world struggle to secure COVID-19 vaccines for their citizens, some non-Western powers have actively distributed vaccines internationally – an act broadly recognized as vaccine diplomacy. While existing literature suggests that geopolitical concerns affect the selection of recipient countries, it has yet to explain other aspects of vaccine diplomacy. Why are some countries focused on vaccine sales while others are more open to donation? Why do some prefer bilateral to multilateral channels in distributing vaccines? Through comparative analysis of China, India, and Russia, this article shows that political economic factors, in addition to geopolitics, shape the ways non-Western powers conduct vaccine diplomacy. We argue that these countries adjust their strategies in line with their relative advantages in development, manufacturing, and delivery of vaccines. Each country has unique strengths and weakness, which gives rise to the varied patterns in vaccine diplomacy. Our findings suggest that their strategies of vaccine diplomacy are enabled as well as constrained by their economic realities, and the rise of these countries in this field does not necessarily mean an outright challenge to the existing international system. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Review of International Political Economy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
PurposeGovernments around the world have shown poor capabilities in responding effectively to the COVID-19 health emergency outbreaks. After the declaration of COVID-19 as an international pandemic by the World Health Organization on January 31, 2020, three countries experienced the greatest initial impact in Europe. Sequentially Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK) were hit by the highest numbers of contagion and death in the first few months in Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess how information channels and sources influenced the public's evaluation of the three government's communication response strategies.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted between March 14 and April 14, 2020, during the first wave of lockdowns and declarations of States of Emergency in the three countries.FindingsFindings show particularities for the different countries, but also similarities in response and reactions of the public in the three scenarios. The response strategy of the UK Government was the most untrusted and criticized by citizens. In contrast, the Italian and Spanish Governments, which both chose to respond with the severest restrictions, attracted more support from citizens, especially in Italy, which was the first to close borders and impose lockdowns for the population.Research limitations/implicationsDespite the national differences in the preference of information channels and sources, overall, an empirical relationship between government communication assessment and media use were found in all the scenarios.Practical implicationsThis empirical study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, findings will add evidence of implications of the Channel Complementary Theory to the field of risk, crisis and emergency communication. The results also provide insights for communication practitioners in the public sector on how forms of information and trust in sources influence the public's assessment of authorities' communication.Originality/valueImplications for theory and empirical research about communication during a health pandemic are identified and discussed.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic (in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter Movement) exposed pervasive inequities, challenges, and opportunities to explore and implement "best” pedagogical practices to improve how we address social justice issues. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic intensified intergenerational gaps for the already vulnerable, under-resourced, and marginalized in our society. In response, we propose four "best practices” to embrace in our classrooms. These are: (a) fostering flexibility to bridge equity gaps;(b) rethinking the pedagogical panopticon;(c) emphasizing listening to and affirming students' struggles;and (d) employing student-centered accountability. The authors detail some specific inequalities that were brought to the surface during the Spring and Summer of 2020, offer "best practices” in response to such inequities, and stress the need for a student-centered pedagogy that serves to improve teaching and learning not just during a crisis, but also in semesters and years to come.
ABSTRACT
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest in U.S. history, has impacted communities and residents, near and far, in numerous ways. This study proposed and tested a conceptual framework to examine the extent to which (a) information factors (sufficiency, repertoires, similarity, and sensitivity) and attitudes (feeling efficacious in seeking information and willingness/motivation to accept information) are associated with uncertainties in communities during the oil spill and (b) uncertainties, in turn, lead to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the spill. A cross-sectional survey study (N = 240) was conducted in the Houston Ship Channel area. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized conceptual model. Information sufficiency, information similarity, willingness to accept information, and efficacy in information seeking were significant predictors of uncertainty. These predictors explained 30.4% variances of uncertainty. Uncertainty was, in turn, a significant predictor of symptoms of PTSD. Current findings signify the importance of information factors and residents' attitudes in reducing uncertainty and symptoms of PTSD developed during crisis situations, including the current COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The crisis caused by COVID-19 forced public and private actors to deploy various strategies on social media to communicate effectively with their public. This research analyses the institutional communication of the World Health Organization's Twitter account during the first quarter of 2021, with the aim of shedding light on their strategy and analyzing both its strengths and the areas with room for improvement in a crisis like the one studied. For this purpose, an ethnographic content analysis was run on the tweets published by the institutional account of the WHO and the responses issued by the public. A computer-assisted analysis was undertaken through two software programs (SPSS 27 and NVivo 11), and an online tool, Onodo - that helped us develop a sociogram with the different relationships between the actors involved in the crisis and risk communication of the WHO around the subject of vaccination. The main results show, on the one hand, that vaccination is not the focal point of the WHO's discourse at a time when the public's interest was centered on said thematic axis, and on the other, that the or-ganization was not able to create an effective dialogic space. Considering these findings, a reflection is encouraged to optimize professional praxis in future risk and crisis communication strategies in digital environments, expanding the scope of this study towards other organizations and/or time frames.
ABSTRACT
On 7 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a new unknown pneumonia outbreak in China. Over the following weeks, COVID-19 spread to an endemic situation mainly concentrated in the Hubei province, with few isolated cases outside China. The WHO hesitated until 11 March to use the term pandemic, although cases of COVID-19 were reported already in Europe at that time. Sub-Saharan Africa only reported its first cases in mid-February, with some travellers from or returning mainly from Italy, but also Austria, Germany and France. It was only then that the media in South Africa started to report extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak. Various governmental ministries in South Africa or Lesotho informed their populations about COVID-19 and their regulations to control the outbreak of the disease. Although most of the information was in English, a substantial amount of audio and video files were available in several African Languages in South Africa, plus many governmental announcements in Sesotho in Lesotho. Governments and healthcare professionals were aware of the risks of fake news being spread, but they tried to be as transparent as possible with the public. This paper analyses how different countries like Lesotho and South Africa broadcasted COVID-19 in media, official government websites and social media platforms. Cognizance of language usage in media will be looked at as most African countries are multilingual and such life-threatening topics and far-reaching political interventions in all spheres of life should be communicated as inclusively and transparent as possible. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 crisis, social media platforms have been important tools for companies to interact with customers/users. Despite the importance of good communication during a crisis, insights into what kind of crisis-related content companies should publish are rare. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the direct and moderation effects of company-generated posts with crisis-related content on online engagement behavior. It also examines the relationship of specific post attributes with OEB and the moderation effects of post types. A content analysis of 2,600 posts on 20 Facebook brand pages reveals that posts which implicitly address the pandemic directly enhance OEB;posts showcasing company employees, however, decrease OEB. Crisis-related content and certain post types have a moderation effect on OEB. The authors conducted follow-up interviews which confirmed these findings. This study suggests ways that companies can improve their crisis communication to interact with customers/users in a more engaging way.
ABSTRACT
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people shared their symptoms across Online Social Networks (OSNs) like Twitter, hoping for others' advice or moral support. Prior studies have shown that those who disclose health-related information across OSNs often tend to regret it and delete their publications afterwards. Hence, deleted posts containing sensitive data can be seen as manifestations of online regrets. In this work, we present an analysis of deleted content on Twitter during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, we collected more than 3.67 million tweets describing COVID-19 symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, and fatigue) posted between January and April 2020. We observed that around 24% of the tweets containing personal pronouns were deleted either by their authors or by the platform after one year. As a practical application of the resulting dataset, we explored its suitability for the automatic classification of regrettable content on Twitter. © 2023 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Learning outcomes: The purpose of this paper is to understand a new restaurant venture's target segment and create a consumer profile for the new restaurant;to design a positioning statement for the new restaurant;to appraise the marketing strategy and suggest improvements in the marketing mix of a new restaurant venture in the new normal;to discuss the augmentation of services by a new restaurant to compete effectively in the market;and to identify and discuss the vital marketing steps for opening a restaurant in the new normal. Case overview/synopsis: Kelvin, an ambitious and budding restaurateur, had high aspirations with great plans. V café was his first running venture. The income from V café was not enough to improve his social position. He wanted to open a new restaurant (Haikou) and earn more. Kelvin was well aware of COVID-19's current condition and its severe implications for the restaurant business. He did not have any experience in marketing a restaurant. So he was puzzled about understanding the target segment, positioning and marketing mix of the proposed restaurant in the new normal. Complexity academic level: The case will cater to business management students pursuing a postgraduate management program. The case can be applied in Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality Management and Services Marketing courses. The prerequisite for this case is a basic understanding of marketing concepts. Supplementary materials: Supplementary materials teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code: CSS 8: Marketing. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Public health nurses (PHNs) are among the few municipal civil servants who lead community infection control and prevention initiatives in Japanese public health centers (PHCs). This study aims to investigate the distress faced by PHNs and clarify their difficulties and working environment relative to infection prevention control activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We adopted a qualitative description methodology in this study of 12 PHNs who were involved in COVID-19 prevention and control in PHCs in Prefecture A. The distress during the early phase of the pandemic was due to the uncertainty of the SARS-CoV-2 related disease, which caused panic in medical institutions and among residents. PHNs were overwhelmed, distressed and exhausted by their inability to control the 'pandemic', lack of patient cooperation for prevention control and the unsustainable organizational environment. They were also distressed because they were one of the specialized personnel responsible for saving residents' lives with limited medical resources and while having identity crises due to an inability to carry out the PHN's role of controlling infection in the community. For future crises, rapid, drastic innovation defying conventional organizational systems is critical to reform sustainable organizations so that they play an effective role in the community. Innovation in crisis communication and strengthening the medical system will help achieve a resilient community in a health crisis.
ABSTRACT
Given the updated, ongoing recommendations for the COVID vaccine series and booster for children ages 6 months and older yet vaccine coverage remaining at less than 50% among children, it is critical for public health communicators to understand sources of vaccine hesitance among parents. A national survey of parents identifies the mediating effects of vaccine anxiety, safety, and fear on the relationships between COVID-19 threat and efficacy with behavioral intentions to vaccinate. Anxiety mediated the relationships between both threat and efficacy with parents'behavioral intentions to vaccinate their children. Vaccine anxiety, safety, and fear mediated parents' decisions to vaccinate themselves. Theoretical and applied implications are reviewed. Copyright 2023 Authors.
ABSTRACT
This study explored perceptions and effects of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system for COVID-19 public health messaging after a message was sent to Pennsylvania residents in November 2020. Survey and interview research were conducted to understand the targeted publics' reactions to this message and factors impacting potential behavior change. Findings showed residents who received the WEA expressed greater feelings of anger and surprise about the COVID-19 threat compared to those who did not. Additionally, for participants who did not receive the WEA message, higher arousals of fear and perceptions of threat severity predicted a higher likelihood that they would have changed their Thanksgiving plans. Interview data suggested positive emotions toward using WEAs for public health crises in general. Copyright 2023 Authors.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe purpose of this research is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the EU's public diplomacy – towards both domestic and external audiences – during times of crisis. The EU's public diplomacy is examined across six major crises: the Eurozone crisis (2008), the Ukrainian crisis (2014), the migrant crisis (2015), the Brexit referendum (2016), the new transatlantic relationship (2017) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2019). The goal of examining these crises in conjunction is to derive policy-relevant insights.Design/methodology/approachThis article adopts a problem-driven approach – the problem being how successful is the EU at public diplomacy during times of crisis – that draws theoretical and empirical insights from Communication Studies, International Relations and EU studies via a "strategic narratives” framework. It situates the EU as a unique public diplomacy actor, one which is becoming more prominent due to the mediatisation of diplomacy, especially driven by the advent of cyberspace.FindingsThe article finds that the EU has been experiencing a cycle of crises that have affected the political, economic, symbolic and social foundations of the common project. The EU has had some notable success – such as restoring confidence at the height of the Eurozone crisis – and some notable challenges – such as effectively combatting disinformation. Regardless, the EU has the potential to better manage these and future crises by engaging in an effective public diplomacy strategy that tells a shared European story that informs and inspires people, both domestically and externally.Originality/valueThe article offers an original examination of the EU's public diplomacy response to six different crises. It looks at different types of crises and utilises concepts from different social science perspectives. It offers novel strategic and policy recommendations.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this research is to determine how the first and second waves of the COVID-19 crisis had been managed through the official Instagram accounts of the Ministry of Health and Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca as well as which crisis response strategies were used more intensively. The research is limited from March 11, 2020 to March 11, 2021. Another limitation is Ministry of Health's and the Minister of Health's Instagram accounts were only examined within the framework of DiStaso et al.'s (2015) crisis response strategies (information- sympathy-apology). The research uses the quantitative content analysis technique. In line with the analyses, the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health were determined to mostly have used visual posts in the form of photos+text in their official Instagram accounts regarding the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the posts both accounts made in the relevant process were mostly related to the pandemic. Among the crisis response strategies, the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health were also determined to have used the information strategy the most, followed by the sympathy strategy in their official Instagram accounts regarding the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only one post regarding the apology strategy was determined to have been made on the Minister of Health's account during the second wave of the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Natural-hazard crises generate much uncertainty among individuals, organizations, and communities. As feelings of uncertainty grow, individuals experience higher levels of stress and negative impacts to their psychological well-being. People desperately seek information and guidance on what to do and expect, along with how to adapt when faced with crises. While crisis-response organizations are key information disseminators, individuals also seek information from non-crisis-response organizations such as places where they work, volunteer, attend school, or worship. As the frequency of natural-hazard crises increases, so do the expectations of non-crisis-response organizations as valuable information sources. However, there is limited research on the information needs of internal stakeholders and the adequacy of the information provided. In this paper, a new reliable and valid scale, Crisis Information Needs and Adequacy for Internal Stakeholders (CINA-IS) is introduced. Three studies to develop and test this scale are described in detail. This 6-item, one-factor scale can be used to assess the adequacy of the information provided during a crisis from the perspective of internal stakeholders. Organizations and those who study them are encouraged to use this scale to improve internal crisis communication. Adequately meeting internal stakeholders' information needs has the potential to help reduce uncertainty and negative psychological impacts on an organizations' most important asset – its people.
ABSTRACT
When faced with unexpected, traumatic events, such as crises, which can trigger fear and anxiety, people react differently. Depending on the type of crisis and on how affected they are by it, people can run in fear (flight), become numb, irresponsive (freeze), please other people (fawn), or stay put and deal with it one way or another (fight). In such cases, humour, irony and sarcasm appear to be a good strategy. As such, Internet memes are an example of a fight reaction that people have to crises, in which they resort to humorous, ironic, sarcastic texts / videos to deal with such unpredictable events that affect the world that they are familiar with, which become highly contagious (transmissible) on the Internet. By carrying out a qualitative analysis of a corpus of Internet memes from Japan and Romania retrieved from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which appeared in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and by looking at Geert Hofstede's and Edward T. Hall's cultural dimensions, the purpose of this article is to prove that Internet memes-though they are seen as a global phenomenon-bear some local value and transmit ideas, feelings, and beliefs specific to a culture.
ABSTRACT
(1) Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is important for every company that cares for sustainable structures. Healthcare providers especially have made social responsibility their goal. However, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted different activities within the healthcare sector including CSR and its monitoring. However, theory-driven CSR research within the healthcare sector is scarce and monitoring requires a structured understanding of the processes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the CSR practices and activities which healthcare providers have implemented in an exemplified country namely Germany and the effect of the pandemic in this process. (2) Methods: Participants were sampled based on their field of care (general, psychiatric, or rehabilitation), the type of organization (public, private, or non-profit), and group membership. A total of 18 healthcare providers were initially recruited, out of which nine participated in the interviews. They represent companies with yearly revenue of between EUR 110 million and EUR 6 billion, and have between 900 and 73,000 employees. (3) Results: CSR-related activities were postponed due to times of crisis. There was a necessity to rapidly digitalize processes. Frequent and precise communication turned out to be important for keeping employees' well-being, motivation, and satisfaction levels high. Environmental efforts were counteracted by new hygienic requirements and a shift in priorities. Many study participants expressed the hope that after the pandemic, newly established methods, processes, and structures (e.g., digital meetings, quicker and more inclusive communication) would be maintained and developed further. (4) Conclusions: The pandemic has been challenging and at the same time, these challenges also created opportunities to strike a new path using the learnings to overcome future health-related or economic crises.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Humans , COVID-19/epidemiology , Social Responsibility , Organizations , CommunicationABSTRACT
The theoretically-driven inoculation strategy has increasingly become used to counter disinformation regarding pivotal societal issues such as COVID-19 and climate change. The current study examines its ability to cultivate psychological reactance toward unethical public relations attacks called astroturf, ultimately making the disinformation less persuasive. To do so, a between-subjects online experiment (N = 534) was conducted. Results show: 1) the use of inoculation messages outperforms the often-recommended paracrisis no response strategy, 2) combining inoculation with explicit details and autonomy support can elicit reactance toward disinformation, and 3) the use of this strategy can influence attitudes and future behavioral intentions to engage with the attacked organization. Guidance and implications for increasing the development of proactive PR messages within research and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Based on situational crisis communication theory, this study designs a research framework to identify differences in crisis communication practises on beach hotel websites in different Adriatic countries and between three consecutive summer seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative inductive content analysis of official pandemic-related guidelines/recommendations from national and international competent organizations was carried out. Subsequently, an overlooked repeated measures design with deductive quantitative content analysis of crisis communications on hotel websites during the three summer seasons was conducted. Employing the McNemar test, the Cochran's Q-test and Friedman test with post-hoc comparisons, it was discovered that (1) beside the bolstering strategy, the new ‘ignore strategy' of crisis communication was also identified, which has many implications, (2) communication of anti-COVID-19 measures is statistically significant and relatively strongly associated with the country in which hotels are located, and (3) the number of different announcements on anti-COVID-19 measures is significantly different only between two seasons. © The Author(s) 2023.