{"id":92503,"date":"2024-04-30T13:39:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=92503"},"modified":"2024-04-30T13:39:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T17:39:49","slug":"brock-research-examines-niagaras-municipal-covid-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2024\/04\/brock-research-examines-niagaras-municipal-covid-communications\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock research examines Niagara’s municipal COVID communications"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Regional Municipality of Niagara was effective in its website communications during the COVID-19 crisis, but the websites of its 12 local municipalities were less successful in relaying information to their constituents, according to recent Brock research.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was top notch on the Niagara Region website, but you can’t always depend on people going to that site,\u201d says Assistant Professor of Communication, Popular Culture and Film Duncan Koerber, the lead author of a study published recently in the Canadian Journal of Communication<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Koerber and his team sought to better understand the \u201cimportant but under-appreciated role\u201d municipal governments played in boosting communities\u2019 resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic through their online crisis communications efforts.<\/p>\n

By analyzing communications during the pandemic, the researchers aimed to see if and how municipalities could be better prepared to transmit information in future crisis situations.<\/p>\n

The researchers collected thousands of web pages on the 13 municipalities\u2019 official COVID-19 websites captured and stored from March 2020 to December 2021 through the Archive-It<\/a> platform. The team used computational methods to analyze the sites and see how they changed over time.<\/p>\n

The team analyzed the quality of the sites using three principles: information, education and engagement, including crisis communications.<\/p>\n

Accurate information allowed residents to know how to proceed with tasks in light of the various restrictions, addressing such issues as returning library books, depositing batteries in the recycling depot and visiting local municipal offices to pay bills and taxes.<\/p>\n

Education involved explaining the nature of COVID, its symptoms, how to wear a mask properly and how to distance effectively among other topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there also needs to be emotional engagement, statements like \u2018we\u2019re all in this together,\u2019 praising people who are following the rules and warnings of consequences of not following the rules,\u201d says Koerber.<\/p>\n

The research revealed Niagara Region\u2019s COVID-19 website was the most comprehensive, helpful and provided a wide range of topics in clearly laid-out categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual municipalities didn’t necessarily do that,\u201d he says. \u201cThere needs to be more communication between the individual 12 municipalities to raise the level of each website in terms of its comprehensiveness, information quality and consistency in messaging, especially around guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers found that:<\/p>\n