“Indonesian government's public communication management during a pandemic”

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a health emergency as a vaccine for it has not been found yet requiring the government to seriously manage it. Therefore, the government needs to effectively implement non-pharmaceutical measures. One of the measures to suppress the spread of the virus is public communication. The government's public communication in dealing with COVID-19 has faced problems resulted in low public discipline and awareness thus far. This study used a quantitative approach with descriptive statistics analysis. The analysis does not generalize the result but it can explain the characteristics of the sample to formulate the meaning of the result. The findings show that the public communication management of the government of Indonesia has not been effective because the dissemination of public information is diverse and inconsistent. This is because the government gives freedom to various media to provide information to the public, which creates a gap in the management of COVID-19 in Indonesia and results in low public discipline and awareness (mean value 2,97). Therefore, it is difficult for the government to deal with and manage health emergencies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has shown that the government must provide the public with consistent and valid information (mean value 3,51), monitor and supervise mass and electronic media, and use social media and online media to provide valid information from the government and disseminate positive and educative information to the public (mean value 4,06). © Achmad Herman, 2021