Content Analysis of the Controversy Over the Communication of Government Policies in Handling Covid-19 in Online Media

Abstract

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) has hit almost all countries in the world. Cases of Covid-19 sufferers continue to grow. The impacts are also multidimensional, from economic to social. It is not easy for governments to deal with this global spreading pandemic. During the Covid-19 epidemic, controversy arose in the public space regarding government discourse and policies in dealing with Corona and its effects. These various controversies occurred due to the inadequate public understanding of the policies for handling Covid 19. The government is considered stuttering in responding to the situation and shows a failure to deliver good communication to the public. The research problem's formulation is: What is the content of controversy and polemic over government policies in handling COVID-19 from March 2020 to May 2020 in online media. The research method used is quantitative with a content analysis approach. There are three policy contents analyzed, which are sourced from the three news media portals most accessed in Indonesia based on the Alexa website ranking. As a result, there are three main conclusions in this study. First, in communicating government policies, the president is still at the forefront of delivering systems. Second, the guidelines issued by the government are mostly macro policies dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Third, the impact resulting from government policies' communication on handling the Covid-19 epidemic has caused chiefly controversy.