Crisis Communication in the Time of Corona: a Comparative Analysis of Danish and Swedish Public News Narratives
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Crisis Communication in the Time of Corona: a comparative analysis of Danish and Swedish public news narratives Andrea Radlovacki Media and Communication Studies One-year master thesis | 15 credits Submitted: 2020-08-30 Supervisor: Anders Høg Hansen Examiner: Michael Krona Word Count: 16 812 Abstract When the coronavirus disease COVID-19 spread through the world’s countries in early 2020 and dominated the news media, a contrast between how Sweden was combatting the virus compared to other countries who used stricter restrictions quickly became apparent and frequently discussed in media. Through a comparative content analysis, this study aims to investigate how narratives concerning the coronavirus have been presented in Swedish public news medium SVT compared to its Danish equivalent, DR. Any differences in such news reporting could indicate the possibility of media influence behind why one country implemented and adhered to stricter restrictions than the other did. Utilizing a quantitative as well as a quantitative approach, 245 articles from Danish and Swedish sources were coded and analysed through theory grounded in situational crisis communication (SCCT). The findings however revealed similar results, identifying the same four key SCCT-narratives in both countries: anxiety, blame, flattery and care. The theoretical contribution of this study is centred on the reflection of how these similar results may relate to one another on a societal and sensemaking level. The study ultimately also emphasises the flexibility of SCCT strategies as useful narrative tools for further research. Keywords: crisis communication, situational crisis communication theory, SCCT, sensemaking, coronavirus, covid-19, public service media channels, narrative analysis, mediation ii Table of Content ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................... II LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ........................................................................................................... IV 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 THESIS PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTION .............................................................................. 4 1.2 THESIS STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................................... 5 2. BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 6 2.1 DANISH AND SWEDISH SOCIETAL CONTEXT ............................................................................... 6 2.2 LEADERSHIP WITHIN CRISIS COMMUNICATION.......................................................................... 8 2.3 PANDEMICS IN THE CONTEXT OF MEDIATED CRISIS COMMUNICATION .................................. 11 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK................................................................................................. 13 3.1 SITUATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION (SCCT) ...................................................................... 14 3.2 INTRODUCTION TO NARRATIVE AND SENSEMAKING ............................................................... 18 3.3 MEDIA MEDIATION .................................................................................................................... 19 4. METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 20 4.1 RESEARCH DESIGN: CASE STUDY ............................................................................................... 20 4.2 CONTENT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................... 22 4.3 NARRATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................... 23 4.4 RESEARCH STRATEGY AND PROCESS ......................................................................................... 25 4.4.1. MATERIAL ............................................................................................................................... 25 4.4.2. DATA-COLLECTION ................................................................................................................ 26 4.4.3 INTERPRETATION OF DATA ..................................................................................................... 27 4.5 RELIABILITY, VALIDITY AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ........................................................ 31 5. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ..................................................................................................... 32 5.1 ANXIETY NARRATIVE ................................................................................................................. 35 5.2 BLAME NARRATIVE .................................................................................................................... 38 5.3 FLATTERY NARRATIVE ............................................................................................................... 42 5.4 CARE NARRATIVE ....................................................................................................................... 44 5.5 DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 46 5.5 1.LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................................................ 50 6. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 52 7. LIST OF REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 54 7.1 DR AND SVT ARTICLES .............................................................................................................. 60 iii List of Figures Figure 1. Crisis Types Definitions and Cues ..................................................................... 15 Figure 2. The Model of Theoretical Variables of SCCT .................................................... 16 Figure 3. Crisis Response Strategies ................................................................................... 17 List of Tables Table 1. Narrative Analysis Model ..................................................................................... 29 Table 2 .Coding of SCCT Narratives .................................................................................. 30 Table 3. SCCT Narratives: Findings .................................................................................... 33 Table 4. SVT Narratives in % ............................................................................................... 34 Table 5. DR Narratives in % ................................................................................................. 34 Table 6. Positive vs Negative ............................................................................................... 35 iv 1. Introduction The coronavirus disease, COVID-191, is an infectious disease which emerged in the end of 2019 and whose worldwide outbreak in March 2020 was labeled as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Apart from the virus’ many repercussions on the world health care and economy, its impact on the global media scene has been unprecedented in terms of how it dominates the news cycles around the globe (Ducharme, 2020). With people now following news coverage to a greater extent than before, the exposure to media and its influence is undisputable. Media indeed plays a vital role during any crisis, as it is the main channel between governments’ crisis communicators and the public (Seeger, 2007). Through the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus disease, an academic opportunity has presented itself that allows for a fascinating case study on the relationship between public service media and crisis communication in times of the biggest crises of a generation. As of the summer of 2020, there is currently no vaccine or known treatment available that could help prevent the coronavirus and all that countries can do is to try to contain its spread. In this regard, most countries across the globe have reacted in a similar way: harsh lockdowns (in a variety of forms). With most governments choosing to close their countries at an early stage and using force-measures to keep their citizens staying at home, such a reaction appeared to be the status quo on how to contain the coronavirus spread. Showing a willingness to take measurable action towards this new threat is furthermore a way for governments of demonstrating strength and co-operation (Krastev, 2020). “Lockdown” as a term is in this case also used for describing measures taken by countries like the Netherlands or Denmark, where most of society has been shut down but no force-measures used to keep citizens locked inside. 1 Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, which include among others Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Source: The WHO.The most recently discovered coronavirus causes coronavirus disease COVID-19, which will hereinafter this study be referred to primarily as “the coronavirus”. 1 In comparison with the majority of countries affected, one country has stood out in terms of its initial public crisis response: Sweden. In Sweden, there were no obligatory shutdown of