Trends and lifestyles
13 May 2020
Communication during coronavirus: Global Alliance’s guidelines
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has brought the issue of expertise back to everyone’s attention. Including in the field of communication. At this unusual and delicate time, not only what to communicate, but also how to communicate it have become decisive. It may therefore be useful to refer to the advice of authoritative organisations such as the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management, which represents 280,000 professionals and academics from 126 countries.
These are the 12 messages that the Global Alliance considers crucial for responsible communication:
- Before you communicate, think about the impact of your message beyond your organization.
- Do not hide the impact of the pandemic. Be realistic in your communications, based on facts.
- Use straightforward, plain language to minimize dramatizing the situation.
- Include hope in the spirit of communications.
- Spread good examples and practices.
- Identify and legitimize people’s emotions.
- Give priority to messaging from official sources.
- Avoid sharing fake news. Be critical of sources of information.
- Don’t saturate networks with messages.
- Don’t spend time criticizing public communication. Try to cooperate with them to improve.
- Support the work of the media providing accurate information in the right moment.
- Good humor is an antidote to crisis, as long as it is not frivolous.