Feminist Crisis Communication and Ethics of Care: An Analysis of Crisis Communication Messages From First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This chapter examines what was the feminist approach of the political crisis communication adopted by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, within the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on a specific time frame: 17 March 2020–30 December 2020. It identifies and examines the feminist values that shaped her crisis communicational approach through a content analysis implemented on a selection of speeches delivered at media briefings. The analysis is conducted using the theory of ethics of care, with a focus on four concepts related to it, namely: delayed reciprocity, social change, sense of responsibility and relationality. The chapter, further on, detects patterns shaped mostly by feminist values gathered under the umbrella of longing for social change and sense of responsibility and identifies specific contexts while each of the analysed concepts was used, how often and together with each other one. The results also show that three other feminist traits participate strongly in building the given speeches, which can be summarized in: a sense of gratitude, personal honesty and well-being for others.