About the project
Language and rhetoric are central factors in the governmental approach to handling the corona crisis. The project "Pandemic Rhetoric, Trust and Social Media: Risk Communication Strategies and Public Reactions in a Changing Media Landscape" (PAR-TS) will study:
- The current communication strategies of public health authorities.
- The role of social media in the crisis.
- Institutional, social and medial reactions in the public in terms of trust, fear and behavioural change.
- Potential risk and crisis communication strategies for future pandemic outbreaks.
Objectives
PAR-TS will provide a better understanding of the challenges and conditions of trust and trust-building in risk and crisis communication in the changing media landscape.
The objective is to provide research-based advice to the media, authorities and the public concerning the importance of social media and trust for risk and crisis communication about the coronavirus (COVID-19).
We will aid public agencies to improve communication and suggest tools for ethical, strategic risk communication, addressing public concerns.
The project will also contribute with knowledge about how the co-creative achievement from both authorities' communicative actions and novel and innovative practices by the public can lead to resilience in future risk situations.
Collaboration
The project has assembled a cross-disciplinary team drawing on political science, media and communication studies, data science, health and civil society studies.
The involved partners are:
- Department of Media and Communication (IMK)
- Institute for Social Research (ISF)
- SINTEF
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)
- Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)
- Association of Norwegian Editors (NR)
- Opinion
Financing
The Research Council of Norway
Duration
01.06.2020-31.03.2023
Publications
- Ihlen, Ø., Fladmoe, A., & Steen-Johnsen, K. (2024). Uncertainty communication in a high-trust society: Source type, political preference, and trust. International Journal of Communication.
- Ihlen, Ø., & Vranic, A. (2023). Dealing with dissent from the medical ranks: Public health authorities and COVID-19 communication. Public Understanding of Science,
- Fiskvik, Jannicke; Bjarkø, Andrea Vik & Grøtan, Tor Olav (2023). Vaccine rhetoric, social media, and dissensus: An analysis of civic discourse between Norwegian health authorities and citizens on Facebook and Twitter during crisis. I Johansson, Bengt; Ihlen, Øyvind; Lindholm, Jenny & Ørsten, Mark (Red.), Communicating a Pandemic: Crisis Management and Covid-19 in the Nordic Countries. Nordicom. s. 241–260. doi: 10.48335/9789188855688-11.
- Fiskvik, J. T., Bjarkø, A. V., & Ihlen, Ø. (2023). Trustworthiness Over Time on Twitter: Three Critical Periods for the Norwegian Health Authorities and Political Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Social Media + Society
- Wollebæk, D., Fladmoe, A., & Steen-Johnsen, K. (2022). Tillit, følelser, normer og sosial distansering: En longitudinell studie av den norske befolkningen under Covid-19-pandemien. Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift.
- Wollebæk, D., Fladmoe, A., & Steen-Johnsen, K. (2022). ‘You can’t be careful enough’: Measuring interpersonal trust during a pandemic. Journal of Trust Research.
- Wollebæk, D., Fladmoe, A., Steen-Johnsen, K., & Ihlen, Ø. (2022). Right-wing ideological constraint and vaccine refusal: The case of the COVID-19 vaccine in Norway. Scandinavian Political Studies.