An Overview on Strategic Communication to Handle Pandemic: Health Communication Crisis COVID-19

Vimala, Govindaraju and Kamalakannan, Kunachagaran (2021) An Overview on Strategic Communication to Handle Pandemic: Health Communication Crisis COVID-19. In: International Conference on Emerging Media & Communication (ICEMC 2021), 1-3 June 2021. (In Press)

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Abstract

Health communication research has experienced a rapid growth in recent years worldwide. Communication is a significant element especially providing effective response between governments, health care professionals, scientists, the media, as well as the public during this COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Health communication is an essential tool for achieving public health objectives, including helping and supporting behaviour change and removing health differences. Truthful and strong health communication can enable how people handle insecurity and fear, encourage, and undertake faithfulness to essential behavior change, and meet persons’ fear and nurture anticipation in the face of a crisis. As coronavirus massively spread on a global scale, there are countries and public that are not aware on the reliable information about the pandemic. COVID-19 was first detected in Malaysia in January 2020. Since then, the Malaysian Government through the Ministry of Health has been consistent in delivering daily updates on COVID-19 to the public. Every nation throughout worldwide, strategic communication rigorous on facing rumors and false information about COVID-19 situation. Ineffective communication has caused high rates of infection, health threat, suffering and deaths. In this pandemic situation, there are some critical challenges faced by the governments due to ineffective communication with the public. Strategic communication develops health communication operations to ensure that public are being noted efficiently, respectfully about the situation, and are being helped to understand the claims of these campaigns such as ‘Kita Jaga Kita’ concepts. This article reviews the role of strategic communication in responding and reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Malaysia.

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