Big COVID, Red State: The Value of Over-Communication in a Public Health Crisis

Jen Schneider

doi:10.3389/fcomm.2021.653665

Abstract

This Community Case Study examines the challenges of communicating about the COVID-19 crisis in a politically conservative American state, Idaho. The study presents an analysis of one local expert’s communication strategies in the face of significant partisanship, threats of violence, and widespread refusal to comply with recommended public health behaviors. Findings suggest that consistent, cross-platform communication that emphasizes personalized recommendations and advice, transparency, and humility, are key strategies in a fractured information environment. However, while micro-level communication strategies are important, more must be done to help Americans regain trust in institutions, expertise, and information at a macro-level.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic’s trajectory in the United States has created a number of opportunities to study crisis communication strategies, and especially how scientists, public health experts, and other professionals communicate during a public health crisis
While some leaders might pull back during a crisis in order to avoid saying the wrong thing, or to focus primarily on operations or image management, Pate obeys the opposite impulse: communicate, communicate, and communicate some more. He uses several strategies that he repeats over and over again, across the many platforms he uses to reach the public. Many of these are familiar from the literature on effective crisis and science communication, but reiterating them within the context of the twin crises of COVID and challenges to democratic processes and authority may be useful
What people will do, in my experience, is they will fill in those gaps [with misinformation].” (David Pate, interview with the author, October 19, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic’s trajectory in the United States has created a number of opportunities to study crisis communication strategies, and especially how scientists, public health experts, and other professionals communicate during a public health crisis. The American context allows us to analyze what constitutes effective crisis communication in a deeply polarized political environment characterized by mistrust in authority and institutions. Under the Trump administration, there was a lack of consistent pandemic leadership and management at the federal level, devolving authority to decision-makers at state and local levels, but without adequate support and guidance. This created a patchwork response, leading to rolling spikes in infection rates, closures of schools and businesses, and hundreds of thousands of deaths across the country. Social media regimes and leaders, including President Trump himself, circulated mis- and disinformation with alarming speed and in a polarizing manner (Evanega et al, 2020; Roosenbeek et al, 2020; Su, 2021)

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Conclusion