Over the last twenty years, public sector communication has traversed profound transformations that have changed and redefined its practices and tools, influencing also its research boundaries and trajectories. Communication function has shown innovative traits linked to the impact of Internet and social media, but it also has revealed its fragility in front of growing political interferences and resistances from organizational bureaucracies. The Covid-19 pandemic has represented a turning point for public sector communication that has acquired new visibility in this emergency situation, and it has been forced to redefine consolidated communication models. In this scenario characterized by a general distrust toward institutions, public sector communication must recover credibility, guarantee transparency, correctness and timeliness in the dissemination of information. Starting from these considerations, this study on government communication in the context of Covid-19 investigates two aspects: the possibility that the emergency situation represents an opportunity to relaunch public sector communication as a service function, with particular regard to its digital dimensions; reconstruct the narrative of the pandemic through government communication campaigns in the context of traditional and social media, highlighting contents styles and languages. Results highlight the informative and service function of institutional communication, revealing in some phases innovations in languages and strategies. The alignment and synchronicity between different institutional voices and platforms, and the presence of an effective coordination emerge during the lockdown while they become weaker in the following phase. The article suggests investing in permanent research on publics for a more sophisticated use of campaigns and social media for nurturing a constructive dialogue with citizens.
#DistantiMaUniti: la comunicazione pubblica tra innovazioni e fragilità alla ricerca di una ridefinizione
Gea Ducci
;
2020
Abstract
Over the last twenty years, public sector communication has traversed profound transformations that have changed and redefined its practices and tools, influencing also its research boundaries and trajectories. Communication function has shown innovative traits linked to the impact of Internet and social media, but it also has revealed its fragility in front of growing political interferences and resistances from organizational bureaucracies. The Covid-19 pandemic has represented a turning point for public sector communication that has acquired new visibility in this emergency situation, and it has been forced to redefine consolidated communication models. In this scenario characterized by a general distrust toward institutions, public sector communication must recover credibility, guarantee transparency, correctness and timeliness in the dissemination of information. Starting from these considerations, this study on government communication in the context of Covid-19 investigates two aspects: the possibility that the emergency situation represents an opportunity to relaunch public sector communication as a service function, with particular regard to its digital dimensions; reconstruct the narrative of the pandemic through government communication campaigns in the context of traditional and social media, highlighting contents styles and languages. Results highlight the informative and service function of institutional communication, revealing in some phases innovations in languages and strategies. The alignment and synchronicity between different institutional voices and platforms, and the presence of an effective coordination emerge during the lockdown while they become weaker in the following phase. The article suggests investing in permanent research on publics for a more sophisticated use of campaigns and social media for nurturing a constructive dialogue with citizens.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
