International Perspectives on COVID-19 Communication Ecologies: Public Health Agencies’ Online Communication in Italy, Sweden, and the United States

Serena Tagliacozzo,Frederike Albrecht,N Emel Ganapati

doi:10.1177/0002764221992832

Abstract

Communicating during a crisis can be challenging for public agencies as their communication ecology becomes increasingly complex while the need for fast and reliable public communication remains high. Using the lens of communication ecology, this study examines the online communication of national public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Sweden, and the United States. Based on content analysis of Twitter data (n = 856) and agency press releases (n = 95), this article investigates two main questions: (1) How, and to what extent, did national public health agencies coordinate their online communication with other agencies and organizations? (2) How was online communication from the agencies diversified in terms of targeting specific organizations and social groups? Our findings indicate that public health agencies relied heavily on internal scientific expertise and predominately coordinated their communication efforts with national government agencies. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that agencies in each country differed in how they diversify information; however, all agencies provided tailored information to at least some organizations and social groups. Across the three countries, information tailored for several vulnerable groups (e.g., pregnant women, people with disabilities, immigrants, and homeless populations) was largely absent, which may contribute to negative consequences for these groups.

Highlights

Crises can place responding organizations under extreme pressure
We explore whether scientific public health agency messages target different organizations and social groups
Based on a descriptive content analysis of online COVID-19 communications in Italy, Sweden, and the United States through Twitter (n = 856) and press releases (n = 95), we find that health agencies relied heavily on their own scientific expertise and coordinated their communication efforts predominantly with external national government agencies during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic in each country

Summary

Introduction

Crises can place responding organizations under extreme pressure. To address crisis situations, responding organizations engage in communication networks that encompass a wide range of actors (Kapucu, 2006). The crisis communication landscape is crowded by multiple organizations and actors that compete for public attention and legitimacy (Hall & Wolf, 2019; Holmes et al, 2009) Within this multivoice and information-rich environment, it is critical for responding organizations to collaborate with trusted partners for message delivery, in order to reduce information inconsistencies and cognitive stress in affected populations who receive conflicting messages (Hall & Wolf, 2019; Seeger, 2007). In this respect, without specific efforts to coordinate the communication, functional fragmentation of government agencies may pose the risk of multiplying the type of information provided to the public (Zeemering, 2020). Targeted messages for several organizations and vulnerable social groups were remarkably absent from these agencies’ online communication, possibly yielding further negative consequences for these organizations and groups

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