Abstract
Rising COVID-19 cases in Canada in early 2021, coupled with pervasive mis- and disinformation, demonstrate the critical relationship between effective crisis communication, trust, and risk protective measure adherence by the public. Trust in crisis communication is affected by the communication’s characteristics including transparency, timeliness, empathy, and clarity, as well as the source and communication channels used. Crisis communication occurs in a rhetorical arena where various actors, including public health, news media, and the public, are co-producing and responding to messages. Rhetorical arenas must be monitored to assess the acceptance of messaging. The quality and content of Canadian public health and news media crisis communication on Facebook were evaluated to understand the use of key guiding principles of effective crisis communication, the focus of the communication, and subsequent public emotional response to included posts. Four hundred and thirty-eight posts and 26,774 anonymized comments were collected and analyzed. Overall, the guiding principles for effective crisis communication were inconsistently applied and combined. A limited combination of guiding principles, especially those that demonstrate trustworthiness, was likely driving the negative sentiment uncovered in the comments. Public health and news media should use the guiding principles consistently to increase positive sentiment and build trust among followers.
Highlights
Despite public health’s ability to rapidly detect and respond to emergencies, communication regarding these crises and their recommended measures remains a significant challenge [1,2]
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the critical requirement of effective crisis communication, with infectious disease spread heavily relying on the public following risk protective measures
Our analysis addressed whether official crisis communication employed key characteristics that contribute to maintaining trust and promoting the adoption of risk protective behaviours, as well as the publics’ emotional response to the messages
Summary
Despite public health’s ability to rapidly detect and respond to emergencies, communication regarding these crises and their recommended measures remains a significant challenge [1,2]. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the critical requirement of effective crisis communication, with infectious disease spread heavily relying on the public following risk protective measures. The lack of adherence to public health restrictions in Canada may, in part, be due to the lack of clarity and transparency in communication from officials including government and public health [4]. Effective crisis communication should be delivered in many ways, across multiple channels, and must reflect the public’s needs [5]. Ineffective communications and inconsistent and conflicting messages between actors during COVID-19 have been reported, which can impact on belief in misinformation, perceived risk, and appropriate response by the public [6,7,8]
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