Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg\u2019s posts on Facebook

Sanjana Arora,Jonas Debesay,Hande Eslen-Ziya

doi:10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5

Abstract

This article explores the Facebook posts of Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg to highlight the key features of her crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on data from Solberg’s Facebook posts from February 27, 2020 to February 9, 2021 (i.e., starting from the day when the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Norway until the time of data collection for this study). Out of her 271 posts, 157 of them were about COVID-19 and were chosen for analysis. The analyses identified five major themes: (1) Promoting responsibility and togetherness (2) Coping (3) Being in control amidst uncertainty (4) Fostering hope and (5) Relating with the followers. Drawing inspiration from Boin, Stern and Sundelius’, work on persuasive narratives, this study shows the ways that Solberg’s posts about COVID-19 exhibit all five identified frame functions. In addition, the findings add contextual nuances to the frame functions through the theme of ‘Responsibilization and togetherness’, which are reflected through references to Norwegianness and the cultural concept and practice of dugnad. This study adds to our knowledge about how persuasive narratives are incorporated into the social media communication strategies of leaders and highlights the usefulness of this framework for studying ongoing and future crises.

Highlights

The economic and social disruption caused by the COVID19 pandemic is having major impacts on people’s livelihoods and their health
Facebook serves as an important platform for public leaders in Norway during crises, and by analysing Solberg’s Facebook posts, we aim to demonstrate the key features of her communication strategy during the COVID-19 crisis
In reviewing our findings from the framework of Boin et al (2016), we found that all five frame functions of persuasive narrative were embedded in Solberg’s posts and aligned with our themes

Summary

Introduction

The economic and social disruption caused by the COVID19 pandemic is having major impacts on people’s livelihoods and their health. Crisis communication highlights legitimation strategies, and indicates how government institutions themselves make sense of crises (Brandt and Wörlein, 2020) Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic can disrupt the socio-political order of societies, leaving a cognitive void in the minds of the public that can be filled with fear and uncertainty (Boin et al, 2016). Sources of crisis communication, such as leaders and public health officials, are perceived to be reliable and trustworthy when they exhibit concern and care (Heath and O’ Hair, 2010) They can be more effective in building relationship with the public, if they consider the cultural factors that play a role in their communicating about risks (Aldoory, 2010)

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