Risk Communication and COVID-19

Risk Communication and COVID-19 explores the ‘risk communication’ responses by national governments to the outbreak and global spread of the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus.

The book focuses on 17 country case studies, representing states all around the world, covering a range of democratic and authoritarian systems, styles of leadership and political contexts. The chapters analyse communication drawing on a modified risk communication framework to determine what patterns governmental risk communication followed in several areas: messenger attributes, consistency and clarity of communication, communication methods, message attributes, and public trust in government. The book also analyses how these attributes changed and developed over time from 2020–2022. The analysed period is divided into several parts representing different pandemic milestones such as the first cases, the second wave of the pandemic, vaccination, and adaptation to the endemic logic of dealing with the COVID-19 virus. Importantly, the book draws out key lessons which can inform communication strategies during crises, particularly when the crisis necessitates public behavioural adjustments. The lessons are framed to further understanding of the challenges faced within the field of political risk communication during crises in the 21st century.

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of politics, communication and public relations, specifically on courses and modules relating to current affairs, risk communication, crisis communication and strategic communication, as well as practitioners working in the field of health crisis communication.