Media Studies group present at the second BBK congress “Research for Civil Protection”

Johanna Radechovsky from the Media Studies group spoke about the challenges and optimization approaches of state risk and crisis communication at the specialist congress “Research for Civil Protection”, which was hosted by the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) in Bonn from 05 to 07 February 2025.

In her presentation, she focused in particular on the hurdles and potential for improvement faced by German municipalities in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, the municipalities suffered above all from a lack of time and the inconsistent passing on of information by the state governments. While key improvements such as crisis drills and post-pandemic training have largely been implemented, more innovative optimization measures such as the increased use of social media are often neglected. In addition, there is still a lack of formative evaluations during long-lasting crises.

The study is part of a research project led by Prof. Martin Löffelholz on government risk and crisis communication in Germany, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the MIRKKOMM consortium for three years and will be completed in 2024. Prof. Hans-Jürgen Bucher and Johanne Mayer from KIT Karlsruhe presented another sub-project of the consortium at the conference.