Press Briefings Research Articles

Pragmatic Choice of Diction and Deictic Elements in Select Covid-19 Media Discourse in Nigeria

Recent scholarly works on Covid-19 media discourse and medical discourse have only focused on the use of neologisms within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and language use that investigates communication and exchange of shared background knowledge as important factors between doctors and their patients. This paper investigates the pragmatic choice of words and the various contexts in which deictic elements have been employed by members of Nigeria's Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 to convey meaning with the public. As a pragmatic study, attention is given to the mood aspect, using Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to elicit the potential motivations behind the pragmatic choice of words of the speakers. This paper analyses a total of 92 utterances from four speeches of the Nigeria's Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 members delivered at one of their live telecast press briefings on Tuesday, 27th April 2020, were taped and transcribed for analysis. The utterances were analysed with antconc software, which provided a frequency tally of the specific deictic elements used in the speeches. The findings of this study on the one hand, indicate that speakers at the press briefing used person deixis such as I, We, and Us in both inclusive and exclusive contexts to demonstrate pity for the public and to pragmatically connect with the public as if both the speech producers and the public are engaged in a serious battle against Covid-19. On the other hand, our grammatical analysis revealed the use of military diction, leading the researcher to conclude that the members of the Nigerian Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 assume State authority for themselves.

The Face and Politeness on Philippine Press Briefings: A Content Analysis

Face of the speaker and hearer matters in a communication. This qualitative study employing the content analysis was conducted to understand the different types of face threatening acts and politeness strategies in Press Briefings. There were 12 corpora used in this study. Results revealed that Face Threatening Acts have impacts on the hearer and speaker’s face. This study found two types of faces to the hearer’s face. First is the negative face and followed by the positive face. Each has its own elements which provided wider perspectives on the influence of language in the contexts of discourse. From the corpora, there is only one face which is the negative face. In particular, this presented about the expression of thanks. Moreover, the politeness strategies identified were bald on, positive, negative, and off-record. Face Threatening Acts transpired in the Press Briefings of the Malacañang Palace. Each face was threatened or affected by the exchange of discourses. In can be noted that speaker and hearer’s echelon matters in the presentation of faces. One has the control and the other has to follow. This manifested that imposition changed someone’s face. Furthermore, different elements were indicated in each of the politeness strategies. The utilization of politeness markers makes a difference in preserving and affecting the face of the speaker and the interlocutor. Notwithstanding, this concludes that press briefings are rich sources of information that may deepen the explanation of Face Threatening Acts as well as the politeness strategies.

Navigating the Storm; Effective Crisis Communication Strategies

This article explores the critical role of effective crisis communication in navigating organizational challenges. It highlights the importance of proactive planning, transparency, and empathy in mitigating the negative impact of crises and preserving stakeholder trust. The introduction emphasizes the growing interconnectedness of the world and the frequency of crises faced by organizations. These crises can significantly impact reputation, operations, and even survival. The article defines crisis communication as a public relations strategy aimed at protecting an organization during a public challenge to its reputation. Following this, the piece delves into the importance of effective crisis communication. Research indicates that poorly managed communication can escalate crises into public relations disasters. The Tylenol poisoning incident of 1982 serves as a prime example, where Johnson & Johnson's swift and transparent response helped restore public trust. Effective crisis communication strategies contribute to preserving reputation, maintaining trust, ensuring legal compliance, protecting stakeholder interests, and facilitating organizational learning and improvement. The article then outlines essential steps for navigating a crisis through communication. It emphasizes the importance of proactive planning, including identifying potential crises, establishing communication protocols, and outlining response strategies. Transparency is a crucial element, as withholding information can erode trust and fuel speculation. Additionally, empathy and acknowledging the concerns of those affected by the crisis are vital for fostering understanding and support. Furthermore, the article details the creation of a crisis communication plan. This plan should establish clear objectives and key messages, assemble a dedicated crisis communication team with diverse expertise, and allocate sufficient resources for effective communication. Moving on, the article explores specific techniques for effective crisis communication. Open and transparent communication forms the cornerstone, even amid uncertainties. It highlights the need to balance transparency with responsible communication, acknowledging limitations when necessary. Regular and consistent communication updates are crucial for building trust. Timely and accurate information dissemination is equally important. Delays can create a space for misinformation to flourish. Establishing clear communication protocols beforehand ensures a swift and coordinated response when a crisis strikes. Utilizing a multi-channel approach, encompassing press briefings, social media engagement, and website announcements, empowers organizations to effectively communicate with all stakeholders. Finally, the article emphasizes tailoring messages to different stakeholders. Employees, customers, and investors will each have distinct information needs and preferred communication styles. Addressing these variations ensures effective crisis response and fosters understanding during turbulent times.

Negotiating trust through COVID-19 press briefings

Abstract Drawing from televised COVID-19 press briefings, this study explicates how the interplay between verbal and visual resources help policy makers restore public trust following organization-level failures by neutralizing unfavorable discourses that threaten the public’s perceptions of their competence, integrity and benevolence and by emphasizing positive aspects associated with these factors. The findings reveal that these mediated multimodal speeches not only prioritize the political interests of the government by apportioning blame for the surveillance failures, while aggrandizing their ad hoc responses without addressing the causes. This trust repair practice serves to frame the pandemic – initially as an external biosecurity threat and subsequently as a natural and expectable characteristic of an infectious disease that can be handled – hinging largely on the creation of “us-them,” which undermines equitable public health objectives and transmission mitigation in the long run.

Political framing of Covid-19

Abstract The present study is a corpus-based discourse analysis of the metaphorical framing of Covid-19 in American political discourse. Drawing on data from a corpus of the White House briefings and statements, the study investigates the corpus profile of war and virus and illustrates how the Coronavirus is primarily represented as an enemy to go to war with, rather than a public health crisis to control and mitigate. The study further situates the militaristic framing of Covid-19 within the theoretical framework of moral panic and examines the discursive features that ultimately bridge the metaphorical representation of the pandemic and the construction of moral panic. The study points to nuanced discourse strategies used in the White House press briefings that reconstruct the enemy and regroup the Coronavirus with other so-called enemies of the United States, such as the Communists, as well as the Islamic radicals and the Latin gangs and cartels.

Depicting reflections of power on illocutionary acts of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s speeches on Covid-19

Speeches are often construed to exert one’s power while projecting a political intent towards the audience. This research examines how power is reflected in speeches by Shinzō Abe, a former Prime Minister of Japan, through the categorisation of speech acts. The speeches were delivered in many of his press conferences during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research employed a quantitative approach, and the analysis largely drew on Searle's classification of speech acts to identify and categorise Mr Abe’s expressions of power. Data for this study focused on various formal press briefings, interviews, or other communicative exchanges he conducted in his role as a prime minister. Eight texts were selected for the analysis, and they were collected from the website of the Japanese Prime Minister's Secretariat office from February to May 2020. Findings from the analysis indicated that the prime minister mostly utilised performative verb utterance directions, such as informing (66%), asking (78%), promising (90%), thanking (54%), and deciding (76%), in a form of polite and respectful language, Keigo, to demonstrate reverence towards diplomatic entities. In addition, he frequently highlighted statistical data regarding the circumstances and the prevailing factors of the pandemic that led to a regime of truth and knowledge about Covid-19 in Japan. The findings provided better understanding of Shinzō Abe’s exercise of authority in managing the variability of Covid-19 incidences in Japan, as reflected in the movement of relations with the society and with those diplomatic entities. This suggests that Shinzo Abe’s speeches during the pandemic have a potential pathway that world leaders, linguists or students can traverse and inquire into to ensure community resilience to counteract the fragility caused by a pandemic.

Nuclear Signalling and Escalation Risk in the India-Pakistan Context: A Critical Overview of the 2001-02 Standoff

A terrorist attack on the Indian parliament on 13 December, 2001 resulted in a ten-month long military stand-off between India and Pakistan. Throughout this period, both sides conducted aggressive and provocative signalling by conducting missile tests, and through bellicose speeches, statements and press briefings. These signals were conveyed at various levels by the political, military, and bureaucratic leadership. This paper provides a theoretical framework about signalling, deterrence stability and the escalation risk grounded in the classical understanding on nuclear deterrence and escalation. The paper analyses the nuclear signalling during the stand-off in light of the theoretical framework. The paper tests the hypothesis that a high percentage of indirect signalling would induce instability into a nuclear crisis, and the large number of actors sending signals from either side would increase the likelihood of miscommunication. By sifting through media reports during the stand-off, an elimination exercise was conducted and 72 signals were identified and analysed. The paper is divided into five sections and points to the limitation of the Cold War model to explain the South Asian strategic stability dynamics and the need to work out a model specific to South Asian strategic dynamics.

Cashless policy and Naira redesign of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN): a review

Compared to other nations of the world particularly developed countries, the Nigerian economy is dominated by the use of cash in carrying out transactions. This necessitated the formulation and implementation of cashless policy in 2012 and naira redesign in 2023 to conform to global best practices in currency management since the introduction of cashless systems where transactions are carried out without the use of cash is gaining global attention. This study was conducted to review some of the pros and cons of the cashless policy and naira redesign by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The empirical information gathered are from research works by some analysts across the country, press briefings by the Apex Bank, Government Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs), Presidency, newspaper reviews, etc. Findings from the study showed that the policy was well conceived considering the various opportunities that come with it. Notably, the fact that it reduced the number of unbanked population to an extent, increased employment generation through the influx of mobile banking operators and Point of Sale (POS) agents. However, it was generally opined that the policy implementation timeline was ill-advised. Due to the attendant consequences of the policy which made life somewhat unbearable for most citizens during the period, it was recommended that there be synergy between the three tiers of government (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) while prioritizing stakeholders’ engagement and public awareness.

Deaths and COVID‐19: Talk, silence and alternative realities

AbstractThis article critically considers the UK Government's insidious attempts to control the narrative around COVID‐19 deaths through using the interrelated strategies of “talk and ‘silence’ in order to socially construct a definitive ‘truth’” around the virus. The article traces how these strategies worked in practice and the shift which took place from numerous press briefings and Parliamentary debates to an ominous silence around the number of deaths, in particular. At the same time, as the article illustrates, the government's truth has not prevailed. Their twin strategy has been contested and resisted by grassroots organizations and radical lawyers who have demanded that Ministers should take responsibility for the tens of thousands of preventable deaths which have occurred. Rather than government talk and silence prevailing, it is the voices of the haunted relatives of the dead, demanding accountability, which are creating an alternative narrative.

Public sector leadership during the COVID-19 crisis in Ghana

PurposeThis article examines public sector leadership during the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic in Ghana. It focuses on the Bank of Ghana – the nation's central bank responsible for monetary policy and financial sector leadership – and examines the critical leadership attributes that the central bank demonstrated through its administrative and policy responses to the crisis.Design/methodology/approachText-based content analysis is the method of investigation in this study. The analysis relies on textual data from the Bank of Ghana's monetary policy committee press briefings. The textual data are analyzed in three steps, namely pre-analysis, analysis and interpretation to identify patterns, themes and emphases and to make inferences about the central bank's public sector leadership during the coronavirus crisis in Ghana.FindingsThe findings from textual analysis of monetary policy committee press briefings show that the central bank demonstrated several criteria of effective public service leadership during the crisis, namely sensemaking, critical decision-making, communication, accountability, adaptability and, to an extent, learning. However, the textual evidence suggests that the Bank of Ghana needs to broaden its collaboration and coordination across a wider spectrum of stakeholders in economic crisis management, while not compromising its policy independence.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the emerging literature on public sector leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. It provides a unique perspective on public sector leadership through the lens of economic crisis management in a developing country context.

Lexical Verb(s) of Hedging Used by The White House Secretary’s Responses in Press Briefing

The study aims to investigate the lexical verbs of hedging used by two White House secretaries in press briefings, namely Jen Psaki (JP) and Karine Jean Pierre (KJP). The research focuses on the secretary's response in answering the question made by journalists. The corpus consisting of 22 press briefing meetings published from November 2021 to August 2022. The study identifies the most used lexical verbs by the two secretaries through quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis to describe their functions. As a result, the use of hedging verbs is more widely used by secretary Jen Psaki than secretary Karine Jean Pierre. Nevertheless, both used many verbs in the form of think in their responses. The findings reveal the uncertainty and reduce the secretary’s commitment. Besides, the function of hedging is to protect secretaries from forward-looking statements and seek protection against overstatement.

Next slide please: the politics of visualization during COVID-19 press briefings

ABSTRACT How do governments visually communicate policies, and what does this reveal about actors’ political objectives? Governments strategically narrate their priorities, yet few studies examine this process through visual modes. We contribute to theoretical and empirical understanding in policy studies by focusing on the UK government’s COVID-19 response through its daily press briefings during the first wave of 2020. Combining quantitative changepoint and content analysis with qualitative discourse analysis, we examine all 79 sets of slides when briefings occurred. We identify a reactive phase focused on communicating knowledge about the pandemic in a boundedly rational manner, and a proactive phase that created new policy-based narratives of the pandemic. Besides contributing to emerging pandemic-related policy scholarship, we argue that conceiving these visualizations as visual narrative assemblages is relevant more broadly because it shifts attention to the interaction and interdependence of multiple visualizations as they enable policymakers to perform their authority to govern.

Emergency Risk Communication

The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has caused a public health emergency of international concern. During public health emergencies, effective risk communication plays an indispensable part in a country’s emergency response. This paper explores the use of Structural Topic Modelling, a machine learning technique that automatically identifies key topics and their content in textual data, in analysing emergency risk communication (ERC) practice at the state level. The data is from the UK government’s COVID-19 press briefings televised between March 2020 and June 2021, totalling approximately 1 million words. The study identifies the prominent topics covered in those briefings as well as their distribution over time, which in turn reflect the UK government’s priorities in handling the public health emergency. Close scrutiny of the use of a selection of key words in context sheds further light on the government’s ERC practice from a linguistic point of view.

Oppression by omission: An analysis of the #WhereIsTheInterpreter hashtag campaign around COVID-19 on Twitter.

Critical to managing a crisis such as COVID-19 is the propagation of information to all vulnerable populations. Despite guidelines regarding communicating with people with differing accessibility needs during crises, some often find their needs unmet. Following a lack of assisted communications for d/Deaf people during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Twitter hashtag campaign, #WhereIsTheInterpreter, was launched in the UK, protesting the lack of accessibility during official press briefings around the epidemic. The campaign received support from across the globe. This study analyzes the discourse around the campaign in tweets published from March 1st, 2020 and September 30th, 2021 (N = 27,021) and analyzed the corpus using the Analysis of Topic Model Network (ANTMN) approach. We identified four major themes of discourse: discrimination, accessibility challenges, communication gaps and barriers, and Deaf rights. We analyze the discourse through the perspective of Critical Disability Theory (CDT) and hashtag activism, and discuss practical and theoretical implications.

Examining Legitimacy in Government Agencies’ Crisis Communication

ABSTRACT Governments exercise power over the public in many ways. One clear example is during societal crises when government agencies engage in purposeful strategic communication, issue restrictions and recommendations, and rely on people’s compliance to reach response objectives and meet needs in society. Here, issues of authority and legitimacy are crucial. In this study, we are interested in how this power is configured, and we analyze different dimensions of legitimacy in the strategic communication employed by government agencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on empirical data from Q&A sessions of daily press briefings, we examine how the pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy was challenged and defended in the interactive process between government agencies and journalists. Our analysis shows how all three dimensions of legitimacy co-exist and reinforce one another. However, considerable weight can be ascribed to the pragmatic dimension in this process of legitimation, in which government agencies rely on knowledge-based descriptions (there is) combined with imperatives regarding what needs to be done (we must). This empirical contribution improves our understanding of both the legitimacy concept and how strategic communication is central to the exercise of contemporary government power, which relies on processes of legitimation.

Using Business English as a Lingua Franca for Written and Spoken Communication: Challenges Encountered by Thai Human Resources Professionals in An American Multinational Company

Unquestionably, English is a medium for international communication, particularly in multinational companies (MNCs). In this regard, professionals who work in MNCs, including human resources (HR), inevitably encounter challenges in using English in the workplace environment where people are from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This study attempts to examine how Thai HR professionals perceived the role of business English as the lingua franca (BELF) and how they faced the challenges in using English for workplace communication. This survey study employed a mixed-methods approach for data collection. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview were developed to collect the data. Thirty-nine Thai HR professionals at an American oil and gas subsidiary in the Bangkok metropolitan area were purposively selected. Data collected from both instruments were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis, respectively. Our data analysis demonstrates that most of the respondents had a positive attitude about using BELF in their organisation. However, it was necessary for them to be aware of their interactants’ diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds and to effectively use BELF and avoid serious mistakes in their written and spoken communication. In summary, this study reveals that the Thai HR professionals understood the BELF concept and faced more difficulties in spoken communication tasks (e.g., press briefings and business negotiations) in comparison to written tasks. The findings can be beneficial for educators and HR trainers in terms of awareness of intercultural business communication and guidance for developing BELF-oriented courses for university students, graduates and HR professionals. Keywords: Business English as a lingua franca; spoken communication; written communication; communication challenges; Thai HR professionals

Public health communication in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic

ObjectivesCommunication is central to the implementation and effectiveness of public health measures. Informed by theories of good governance, COVID-19 pandemic public health messaging in 3 Canadian provinces is assessed for its potential to encourage or undermine public trust and adherence.MethodsThis study employed a mixed-methods constant comparative approach to triangulate epidemiological COVID-19 data and qualitative data from news releases, press briefings, and key informant interviews. Communications were analyzed from January 2020 to October 2021 in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Alberta. Interview data came from 34 semi-structured key informant interviews with public health actors across Canada. Team-based coding and thematic analysis were conducted to analyze communications and interview transcripts.ResultsFour main themes emerged as integral to good communication: transparency, promptness, clarity, and engagement of diverse communities. Our data indicate that a lack of transparency surrounding evidence and public health decision-making, delays in public health communications, unclear and inconsistent terminology and activities within and across jurisdictions, and communications that did not consider or engage diverse communities’ perspectives may have decreased the effectiveness of public health communications and adherence to public health measures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionThis study suggests that increased federal guidance with wider jurisdictional collaboration backed by transparent evidence could improve the effectiveness of communication practices by instilling public trust and adherence with public health measures. Effective communication should be transparent, supported by reliable evidence, prompt, clear, consistent, and sensitive to diverse values. Improved communication training, established engagement infrastructure, and increased collaborations and diversity of decision-makers and communicators are recommended.

MEDIA RELATIONS STRATEGY IN MADIUN DISTRICT COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATICS DEPARTMENT IN SENDING GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS

The importance of media relations which is commonly used by several public relations in government has implications for government policies according to the information needs of the public. One of them is the Madiun Regency Communication and Information Service regarding the problems of socializing government programs. This study aims to describe the media relations of the Madiun District Communication and Information Service in optimizing the dissemination of Government work programs. The type of research used is descriptive qualitative. Through data collection techniques, namely interviews and documentation in the discussion of this study. The results of the study, the media relations of the Madiun Regency Communication and Information Service, namely managing relations, developing strategies, and developing networks. In implementing media relations, there are forms of media relations by the Madiun District Communication and Information Office, namely Press Conferences, Press Receptions, Press Briefings, Press Gatherings, Press Gatherings, and Press Tours

Digital and physical factors influencing an individual's preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: A perspective based on the S–O–R model

COVID-19 has caused considerable stress to individuals and communities. Daily press briefings on public health during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased individuals' feelings of social pressure. Abrupt changes to a person's immediate environment, such as the changes caused by COVID-19, can substantially affect their mental health and cognitive adjustment. On the basis of the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, we examined the effects of digital and physical stimuli related to COVID-19 in Taiwan on individuals' psychological states and preventive behavior, including social distancing and personal hygiene. The data obtained from 498 valid survey questionnaires indicated that digital and physical factors including informativeness, social pressure, and severity exerted direct effects on cognitive assimilation and anxiety, which in turn affected individuals' preventive behavior. Moreover, cognitive assimilation and anxiety had significant mediating effects on the relationships of informativeness, social pressure, and severity with individuals' preventive behavior. The results of this study indicate how digital and physical stimulus factors affect cognitive assimilation and anxiety, which influence preventive behavior during a pandemic.

Digital Transformation of the Health Sector During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia

Background: In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia was confirmed. In reaction to the outbreak, Saudi Arabia ordered the closure of the majority of governmental and private services. Technology and digital solutions have made it possible to provide essential services after the implementation of these severe protection requirements. Objective: This study aims to show how Saudi Arabia used digital technology during the COVID-19 epidemic in the fields of public health and health care services, and shedding insight on the efficacy of digital transformation in Saudi Arabia for preventing the spread of Covid-19. Methods: Using public announcements, press briefings and releases, news clips, published statistics, peerreviewed literature, and professional debates, we documented Saudi Arabia's usage of digital technologies throughout the epidemic. Results: The government and business sectors of Saudi Arabia jointly created and released around 19 applications and platforms that support public health duties and offer health care. Detailed descriptions of each are given. Companies in the telecommunications industry collaborated well and took steps to assist continuing efforts. Using social media, websites, and SMS text messages, risk communication initiatives adhered to best practice guidelines. Conclusions: An important step toward digital transformation has been taken by Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 framework. This shift was made possible by COVID-19. For future epidemics in Saudi Arabia, artificial intelligence might be used to integrate data from several sources. Reducing the number of applications and combining their operations may also boost and make it easier for people to utilize them.