Public Communications During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses from Russia
The article presents the results of a sociological research with the aim to determine the extent to which public communications of Russian official bodies reflect the characteristics of modern crisis communications, as well as to identify factors affecting the effectiveness of public communications during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data analyzed are eighteen in-depth focused interviews that were conducted in February-March 2021 in seven out of eight federal districts of the Russian Federation. The interview guide included five sets of questions on the following topics: (1) preferred channels and genres of communication, and the motives of these preference; (2) the image of the crisis and the authorities during the crisis, and the factors that influenced these perceptions; (3) patterns of behavior during the pandemic and factors contributing to their formation; (4) evaluation of the effectiveness of official communications during the pandemic, and expectations related to the messages from authorities. The analysis revealed that Russian citizens demonstrate the behavior of a modern actor in such aspects as a tendency towards rational analysis of information, preference for discussive content, multi-channel information, and involvement in the global information space. With regard to public communications, it is argued that they do not provide space for discussions, do not take into account the analytical capabilities of the knowledge society actors, do not provoke the community involvement (in the exchange of information, social participation); their content is poorly focused on public interests and calls for personalization. Based on the informants' assessments, factors influencing the effectiveness of communications were identified. Among them are the use of channels preferred by the community, selection of competent speakers, laconic style of messages, promptness of information update, targeting, and others.
Keywords
public crisis communications,
COVID-19 pandemic,
qualitative case studyAuthors
| Martynova Svetlana E. | Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration | status_sm@mail.ru |
| Sazonova Polina V. | Tomsk State University | lukinapv@rambler.ru |
Всего: 2
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