Issues Management of Crisis Communication During the Corona Virus 2019 Pandemic via the Public Relations Department’s “COVID-19 Information Center” Facebook Page

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study the Thai government's Public Relations Department’s communications via the COVID-19 Information Center Facebook page during the Corona Virus 2019 pandemic, in terms of 1) communication process, 2) issue management methods, and 3) communication strategies for issue management.   This was a qualitative research based on in-depth interviews. The 12 key informants were individuals directly involved with the Public Relations Department’s communications operations via the COVID-19 Information Center Facebook page. The research instrument was a semi-structured in-depth interview form. Data were descriptively analyzed through interpretation and concluding. The results showed that 1) When the Public Relations Department communicated to the public via the COVID-19 Information Center Facebook page, the process consisted of 5 steps: (1) setting goals, such as informing people of policies and the latest developments; (2) setting the tree target audience groups–the general public, middle-aged people and special groups; (3) deciding on issues, which was done together with officials from 5 related government agencies, combined with fact-checking that was done before any news was posted; (4) production and dissemination of messages, using easy-to-understand language, with topics that were relevant to the target audience groups, and containing information that can be easily put into practice; and (5) evaluation, by collecting opinions from message receivers who were affected and dividing their responses into categories and analyzing the information to adjust methods and content to better match the situation. 2) The management for the communication issue utilized four methods: (1) analyzing the situation to assess impacts and damage, and assessing the perceptions of the target audience groups about the pandemic and whether they were concerned or panicked. (2) Defining the main issues selected by meetings of the COVID-19 information center and the secondary issues that came from the spokesman team. When the situation was not too serious, the emphasis was on pre-planned proactive public relations. But when the situation was severe, a more defensive public relations stance was taken emphasizing positivity and optimism as well as encouraging people to work together. There was an evaluation of the messages shared online, and topics were ranked according to public interest and the situation. If a given topic seemed to confuse, the emphasis was placed on informing the public, posting positive news more frequently, and avoiding delving deeply into topics that seemed confusing. (3) Daily posting was planned to emphasize topics that gave knowledge about the disease, risk factors, the readiness of Thailand’s public health system, and what the government was doing to deal with the situation. (4) Assessment to improve the topics from administrators, taking into account positive and negative comments from message receivers. 3) For issue management strategies, a dynamic response strategy was used the most by producing media to campaign on specific topics and increasing the frequency of posts to maximize the visual area. Simple language was used to make messages more persuasive and easier to remember, so message receivers would be more likely to change their attitudes and share the information. In the case of opposition or when members of the public refused to cooperate, the team would wait for a policy from the administrators and refer to authorities to make their messages more credible. When the information available fluctuated or changed rapidly, the public relations department’s policy was to accept the changes and post updates with apologies and explanations, adding more references.