International DFG Project: COVID-19 Communication of Authorities and Media in Europe and the USA

The project "Deciphering the Pandemic Sphere" (DECIPHER) is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with a total of 1.8 million euros over a period of three years. Four departments in the fields of communication science and computer science at the TU Ilmenau as well as the risk communication department of the BfR are involved.

The project analyses comparatively how effectively governments, health institutions and media in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the USA have informed their citizens about COVID-19 and encouraged self-protective behaviour. Three key questions guide the project: (1) What explanations and messages about COVID-19 and related protective behaviors have governments and health institutions communicated to the public in each country? (2) How did media report on the pandemic and related risk messages from governments? (3) How did the public perceive the pandemic and the risk messages?

The research team uses a multidisciplinary approach to answer these questions, combining expertise and methods from communication science, psychology, and computer science. Innovative data science methods, such as machine learning and network analysis, are also used to identify, for example, influential networks and echo chambers in the social media in the context of the pandemic.

At TU Ilmenau, Jun.-Prof. Emese Domahidi, Prof. Martin Löffelholz, Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler, Dr. Andreas Schwarz and Dr. Nadine Steinmetz are involved in various subprojects. At the BfR, the psychologists Dr. Natalie Berger and Dr. Frederik Freudenstein from the Risk Communication Department are conducting research on the population's perception of the pandemic. In addition, the project is supported in an advisory capacity by international experts from Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the USA and the United Kingdom. The President of the TU Ilmenau, Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Sattler:

With this interdisciplinary research project we want to contribute to a better understanding and consideration of the impact of communication on devastating pandemics like COVID-19 in the future.

Dr. Natalie Berger from the BfR in Berlin adds:

The Corona pandemic has developed into an 'infodemic' across national borders and communication channels due to contradictory and sometimes incorrect information. Therefore, an international approach is needed, which we are consistently implementing in this project.

The results of the research project will show which different strategies of risk and crisis communication governments and health authorities in Europe and the USA have used. The public communication and effects of these strategies will be investigated through the analysis of media, social media and surveys of the population. In this way, the project will not only contribute to the scientific understanding of pandemics, but also allow conclusions to be drawn for better communication by authorities and the media in future crisis scenarios of this kind.