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.

Regret, Delete, (Do Not) Repeat: An Analysis of Self-Cleaning Practices on Twitter After the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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.

Crisis Communications on Social Media: Insights from Canadian Officials Twitter Presence during COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic is a unique case in crisis management given its length, scale, several different response systems, and public officials' extensive social media use for crisis communication. Leveraging text mining techniques, we examine Canadian officials' presence on Twitter during the pandemic by focusing on their COVID-19-related content. We identified eight themes of discussion that unveil 37 relevant subthemes. Concentrating on the COVID-19-addressing themes, we reveal that educating citizens on the safety information and keeping them informed with the latest crisis information was the Canadian officials' primary focus during the pandemic. To fight COVID-19, Canadian officials used four policies, and to implement those, they promoted eight measures and practices. According to the volume of generated content, the evolution of COVID-19-addressing themes over time, and their coexistence;Test and trace was the most advocated policy by emphasizing screening the symptoms. To stop the spread of COVID-19, Canadian officials promoted wearing Mask, Social distancing, Hand washing, and Stay home, where Mask and Social distancing were the most frequent practices. Our study contributes to crisis communication and management by depicting how Canadian officials leveraged social media during such a big-scale crisis. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Covid-19 in France: Crisis communication and on-the-fly training of populations

Among the countries of the world, 99.3 % have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been raging since the end of 2019 and continues today in 2021. This initially health crisis quickly turned into a pandemic affecting all possible aspects of a crisis (humanitarian, economic, social, etc.). In this article, we are interested in two important aspects of crisis management: communication/dissemination of information and preparing populations for risks. Following interviews with the population, we set an example of the importance of communicating information, preparing populations for future crises and the impact of populations' behaviors. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Digital Campaign Strategy to Controlling Mobility in Ied Mass Holiday Period during Covid-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis of Indonesian Government's PSA

Indonesia is leading as a country with a maj ority Muslim population. The ritual of citizen mobility on a mass scale occurs during the period of Eid al-Fitr, or what is known as mudik or homecoming. Social restrictions and mobility monitoring during the Covid-19 crisis impact the residents' mass activities, including the annual homecoming ritual. There are not a few conflicts between the interests of shared health and the annual ritual traditions of the residents. Public Service Advertisements (PSA's) are a medium for policymakers to provide socialization and build awareness for residents to negotiate the situation not to return home during the Eid holiday. This study uses the content analysis method to determine the messaging trend in public service advertisements in the early period and first year of the Pandemic (May-June 2020). This study collects data through digital artifact documentation (images and videos) displayed on the education menu of the Indonesian government's official website to deal with the Covid-19 Pandemic: www.covid19.go.id. The results showed that the main content of the PSA's message was built by adjusting to the level (escalation) of crisis and the level of understanding of citizens on the Pandemic. The Government of the Republic of Indonesia uses PSA's with the content #TidakMudik or #NoHomeComing to control mobility by bringing persuasive, informative, and transformative messages. © 2022 IEEE.

Connecting to Congress During COVID-19: Political Representation and Two-Way Crisis Communication

In the wake of the rapid escalation of COVID-19 in the United States in 2020, Congress was charged with finding ways to effectively disseminate reliable information and encouraging compliance with public health measures in addition to designing policies that would be responsive to the unprecedented needs of those in their districts. Our team quickly transitioned and tailored the structure of our Deliberative Town Halls (DTHs) as to best facilitate the necessary conversations between members of Congress and their constituents: whereas pre-COVID-19 DTHs focused on a single issue with a single member of Congress, the COVID-19 events often featured a bipartisan pair of members, participating alongside subject matter experts. These two-way conversations allowed for members to gain the critical information pertaining to how to develop policies that were responsive to articulated constituents needs and allowed constituents to express their opinions and feelings on COVID-19 related policies, Congress's handling of the pandemic, and the personal struggles they had faced as the effects of the pandemic transpired. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.

Rhetoric and Management of Communication Crises in Education in the Period 2020 - 2021

The pandemic has posed serious challenges to all spheres of public, economic and political life. This necessitated the development and implementation of a number of measures related to the new organization of work of companies and institutions. Communications - with external and internal audiences - have begun to play a key role not only in the immediate survival of organizations, but also in their successful recovery from the crisis. Crisis communications are especially important in this process. One of the sectors facing the biggest challenges during the Covid pandemic was education. Those working in the field had to prepare completely new communication programs aimed at process management. They also had to adapt their current communication strategies to meet the requirements of the environment. The material will consider the main characteristics in the communication of the restrictive measures of educational institutions in Bulgaria in the period 2020 2021. Some techniques and methods of rhetoric applied during this period will be presented.

College Presidents’ Public Messaging During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Published Opinion Pieces as Crisis Communications

During the Spring and Summer of 2020, college presidents across the United States undertook the difficult task of determining how best to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. An important aspect of leading through a crisis is messaging—that is, communicating about how the crisis is impacting one’s organization and how the needs of organizational constituents are being addressed. The purpose of this study was to analyze short opinion articles (op-eds) published by college presidents regarding higher education and the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how those publications functioned as public crisis communications. This study involved a content analysis of 40 op-eds that were authored or coauthored by college presidents between March and August 2020. Findings indicate that college presidents discussed their organizations’ implementation of public health matters, the importance of togetherness in a crisis, and how their institutions were helping the community during the public health emergency. College leaders’ desire to attain much-needed resources was also evident in many op-eds. This study illuminates how college presidents used public messaging via opinion pieces to communicate publicly during the early months of the pandemic and to attempt to secure resources for their organizations. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of American Behavioral Scientist is the property of Sage Publications Inc. 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.)

Investigating the Influence of Crisis Communication on Population Outrage amidst the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of effective crisis communication. Specifically, varied regional crisis communication has caused a substantial impact on how communities perceive the virus and its risks. Our research analyzes the COVID-19 crisis communication responses seen in the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Croatia, Israel, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Several pandemic specific societal norms were analyzed for positive and negative trends to capture population outrage, based on the various crisis communication measures implemented. The norms focused on include political intervention, mask use, travel restrictions, e-commerce, vaccination rates, and demand for disinfectants. These norms were identified because of their considerable uptick in heightened awareness in the public eye in light of the pandemic. The trends seen in these pandemic specific norms affected each population uniquely due to varying strategies adopted for crisis communication. Differences in crisis communication methods can lead to distinctive responses in outrage caused by the pandemic. For example, the United States' and the New Zealand's populations starkly juxtapose one another's crisis communication methods based on their outrage to pandemic specific societal norms. Our study investigates the influence that crisis communication has on the overall perception of the pandemic. Determining the influence that crisis communication has on population outrage can help improve future pandemic crisis communication to eventually bridge the gap between public outrage and the true risk at hand. © ASCE.

BUILDING RESILIENT COALITIONS: HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESPONSE THROUGH COVID-19 CONCURRENT EVENTS

This study examines the role of the non-profit organization SouthEast Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC) in capacity-building among healthcare institutions in the largest medical center in the world in the Houston, Texas region. Specifically, using conceptual resilience model accessed by organizations as they respond to crisis or disruption, we assess the linking dimension of SETRAC in healthcare delivery during COVID-19 concurrent disasters through supporting and coordinating services to healthcare institutions amid the pandemic. Specifically, the assessment comprises two critical events in the region concurrent to the COVID-19 pandemic - Hurricane Laura in fall 2020 and Winter Storm Uri in spring 2021. Our inquiry adopts the classical content analysis suitable for analyzing large textual data of 802 open-ended after-action report (AAR) surveys conducted among healthcare system entities in the region of which 403 collected post Hurricane Laura and 399 AARs collected after the Winter Storm Uri. Our findings center on discussion of three categories of capabilities: (a) established capabilities;(b) developing capabilities;and (c) unmet capabilities. The purpose of the study is to illuminate the role of a non-profit coalition in enhancing and sustaining a decentralized network of healthcare providers in the management of increasingly complex and compounded disasters and to identify best practices for coordination and collaboration across a range of concurrent hazards and threats. © 2021 WIT Press.

From tsunami through terror attacks to Covid-19: crisis communication strategies and recovery campaigns to combat Thailand's tourism crises

Countries dealing with tourism crises use a variety of crisis communication strategies, as found in various studies. Thailand is one of the strongest global tourism brands and tourism remains its dominant industry. In recent decades, it has suffered several crises: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, a pandemic, and internal political tensions. This study analyzes which crisis communication strategies Thai officials adopted to restore Thailand's positive image during tourism crises;in addition, we analyzed how these strategies stem from the country's ideations and cultural values, a subject that was scarcely addressed in previous crisis communication theory.

Fear, mistrust, and vaccine hesitancy: Narratives of the dengue vaccine controversy in the Philippines.

This article applies a qualitative approach to the 2017 dengue vaccine controversy involving Sanofi Pasteur's Dengvaxia to understand vaccine hesitancy and related anxieties in contemporary Philippines. Through a multisited project that investigated the health aspirations and lived experiences of low- and middle-income Filipinos across urban and rural Philippines, this article distills the perspectives of both ordinary community members and health workers in local and national capacities regarding the controversy-and how it altered their perceptions toward vaccines, health care, and government. Our study reveals widespread mistrust and fear in the communities toward both the state and health institutions following the controversy, with frontline health workers bearing the brunt of the communities' apprehensions, and the media partly responsible in fomenting these fears. Given the repetitive nature of health and vaccine controversies, this article suggests the importance of responsible journalism, well-calibrated crisis communications, and a people-centered health paradigm that involves exploring local contexts of vaccine hesitancy and mining people's lived experiences in tackling present and future health crises-especially now in the advent of COVID-19 vaccinations.