Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 health crisis has posed an unprecedented challenge for governments worldwide to manage and communicate about the pandemic effectively, while maintaining public trust. Good leadership image in times of a health emergency is paramount to ensure public confidence in governments’ abilities to manage the crisis.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify types of image repair strategies utilized by the Malaysian government in their communication about COVID-19 in the media and analyze public responses to these messages on social media.MethodsContent analysis was employed to analyze 120 media statements and 382 comments retrieved from Facebook pages of 2 mainstream newspapers—Berita Harian and The Star. These media statements and comments were collected within a span of 6 weeks prior to and during the first implementation of Movement Control Order by the Malaysian Government. The media statements were analyzed according to Image Repair Theory to categorize strategies employed in government communications related to COVID-19 crisis. Public opinion responses were measured using modified lexicon-based sentiment analysis to categorize positive, negative, and neutral statements.ResultsThe Malaysian government employed all 5 Image Repair Theory strategies in their communications in both newspapers. The strategy most utilized was reducing offensiveness (75/120, 62.5%), followed by corrective action (30/120, 25.0%), evading responsibilities (10/120, 8.3%), denial (4/120, 3.3%), and mortification (1/120, 0.8%). This study also found multiple substrategies in government media statements including denial, shifting blame, provocation, defeasibility, accident, good intention, bolstering, minimization, differentiation, transcendence, attacking accuser, resolve problem, prevent recurrence, admit wrongdoing, and apologize. This study also found that 64.7% of public opinion was positive in response to media statements made by the Malaysian government and also revealed a significant positive association (P=.04) between image repair strategies utilized by the Malaysian government and public opinion.ConclusionsCommunication in the media may assist the government in fostering positive support from the public. Suitable image repair strategies could garner positive public responses and help build trust in times of crisis.
Highlights
BackgroundA public health crisis is often a threat to health infrastructure because it can cripple an existing health care system on a larger scale
Prior studies have recognized the importance of image repair in various crises, investigation of public sentiment on image repair strategies has been limited. To address this knowledge gap, we explored the following research questions: (1) What are the image repair strategies employed by the Malaysian government in their communications on COVID-19 in the media? To investigate which image repair strategies utilized in the media by the Malaysian government on COVID-19, it is pertinent to analyze media statements by government officials
(3) What is the relationship between image repair strategies and the direction of public sentiment on COVID-19 media statements by the Malaysian government? By examining the relationship between image repair strategies and the direction of public sentiment, this study aims to describe the effectiveness of the Malaysian government’s effort in communicating about COVID-19
Summary
BackgroundA public health crisis is often a threat to health infrastructure because it can cripple an existing health care system on a larger scale. During the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the federal government faced a critical challenge in disseminating relevant information, obtaining local cooperation, and conducting mass inoculation programs. This was due to a weak social system and diminished public trust. The civil unrest and domestic terrorism in the Democratic Republic of Congo made it more difficult for the government to combat the Ebola virus [3]. The COVID-19 health crisis has posed an unprecedented challenge for governments worldwide to manage and communicate about the pandemic effectively, while maintaining public trust. Good leadership image in times of a health emergency is paramount to ensure public confidence in governments’ abilities to manage the crisis
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