Risk Communication for Emerging Pandemics: Local Community Setting Influence on COVID-19 Consciousness Building in Rwandan Communities

Global public health communication has taken an ongoing top-down approach. Community engagement is overlooked in emergencies, yet it helps create better communication, build trust, and improve overall health outcomes. Development communication researchers have criticised the diffusion approach as antagonising participation and engagement. They advocated for a participatory communication model by which community members express their perceptions and views without giving practical guidance for engaging communities in pandemic conscientisation. This article aimed to analyse the perceptions of community responses to COVID-19 prevention messages in Rwanda and the influence of local contexts. The study adopted the participatory communication theory and the culture-centred approach, collected data with focus group discussions, and utilised reflexive thematic analysis to understand how the cultural and socioeconomic environments influenced community perception of dominant messages in Kiruhura, Karama and Mwendo settlements. It found that COVID-19 prevention messages reached communities as instructions to follow. Influenced by their culture, socioeconomic limitations and other pandemic experiences, residents experienced conflicting perceptions of COVID-19 and prevention messages, which resulted in ambivalent responses. Therefore, this study suggests analysing communities’ cultural, socioeconomic, and other pandemic experiences, as they direct community conscientisation and can help better communicate emerging pandemics in Rwanda and similar contexts.