Crisis Communications on Social Media: Insights from Canadian Officials Twitter Presence during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic is a unique case in crisis management given its length, scale, several different response systems, and public officials' extensive social media use for crisis communication. Leveraging text mining techniques, we examine Canadian officials' presence on Twitter during the pandemic by focusing on their COVID-19-related content. We identified eight themes of discussion that unveil 37 relevant sub-themes. Concentrating on the COVID-19-addressing themes, we reveal that educating citizens on the safety information and keeping them informed with the latest crisis information was the Canadian officials' primary focus during the pandemic. To fight COVID-19, Canadian officials used four policies, and to implement those, they promoted eight measures and practices. According to the volume of generated content, the evolution of COVID-19-addressing themes over time, and their coexistence; Test and trace was the most advocated policy by emphasizing screening the symptoms. To stop the spread of COVID-19, Canadian officials promoted wearing Mask, Social distancing, Hand washing, and Stay home, where Mask and Social distancing were the most frequent practices. Our study contributes to crisis communication and management by depicting how Canadian officials leveraged social media during such a big-scale crisis.