Martin Löffelholz Presents Landmark Study on Government Messaging in Crises at IAMCR 2025

Singapore, July 15, 2025 — At the Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), held this year at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Professor Martin Löffelholz presented the findings of a major international research project titled:

"The Newsworthiness of Government Messages in Protracted Crises: A Longitudinal and Cross-National Analysis of News Values in State Press Releases."

The study, co-authored by Dr. Yi Xu (University of Jena), Prof. Audra Diers-Lawson (Kristiania University College), Prof. Bengt Johansson (University of Gothenburg), and Professors Deanna and Timothy Sellnow (Clemson University), examines how governments across seven countries communicated with their publics, including media, during the COVID-19 pandemic through official press releases.

Although the co-authors could not attend in person, Löffelholz shared results on their behalf, highlighting the evolution and variation of news values—such as proximity, emotional appeal, clarity, and behavioral directives—used in more than 6,500 state press releases from 2020 to 2022. The analysis reveals that while certain news values—such as proximity and elite references—were consistently emphasized, others varied significantly depending on national media systems.

Key findings show:

• Democratic Corporatist countries (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden) favored cognitive clarity and behavioral instruction.
• Liberal systems (U.S., U.K.) employed a broader mix of cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategies.
• Polarized Pluralist systems (Italy, Spain) leaned heavily on emotional and sensory values.

"The ways in which governments tried to frame the pandemic and mobilize citizens were deeply influenced by their national media logics," Löffelholz explained. "Our study offers the first longitudinal and cross-national analysis of how public crisis communication evolved over time—something urgently needed in the age of polycrises."

The presentation drew strong interest from scholars of crisis communication, health communication, and public policy. It contributes to a broader debate on how states can communicate more effectively, transparently, and credibly in times of sustained uncertainty.

IAMCR 2025, under the theme "Communicating Environmental Justice: Many Voices, One Planet," gathered more than 2,500 participants from across the globe to discuss how communication research can help societies respond to growing global challenges.