Public Perceptions of the Canadian Government’s Initial Response to Coronavirus: A Canadian Broadcasting Company Content Analysis

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It is crucial for the government to maintain the public’s trust during uncertain risk. The Canadian government had approximately three months to develop a risk management strategy before Canada saw its first case of coronavirus. This study aims to show how the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) portrays government decision making during the initial outbreak of Coronavirus in January 2020 through March 2020 exclusive by examining 10 articles per month. Over the course of the last three months, government officials were increasingly cited in the CBC news articles. Results from this study shows that as the condition in Canada worsened, more evidence-based decision making is present in the articles, especially during the month of March.