Government crisis communication innovation and its psychological intervention coupling: Based on an analysis of China’s provincial COVID-19 outbreak updates

Abstract

Outbreak updates are an integral part of crisis communication during epidemics. Regarding the COVID-19 crisis communication, localities in China present different strategies for managing outbreak updates, which largely determine the effect of crisis communication and the evolution of social psychology. Depending on the analysis of the update texts from 31 provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) health committees in China, the study found the differences among the provincial outbreak updates and summarizes 12 innovative crisis communication ways. A coupling analysis was applied using the equilibrium-cognitive-psychosocial transition model to further expound on the psychological connotation and intervention potential of the crisis communication innovations. Coupling crisis communication with interventions has a positive effect on designing crisis communication strategies by taking into account psychological factors. It can help construct and optimize the public crisis communication systems and emphasize “care” in modernizing the emergency management capacity.