A framework for characterising the hows and whens of social media communication during crises

Communication strategies are essential during crises, as they can influence people’s behaviours. For governments, crises increase the need for timely communicating information and engaging with citizens. Communication is not only a matter of sharing the right content but also of understanding the communication style and how communications (should) evolve over time. We present a framework for characterising government communication patterns on social media and how such patterns influence citizen engagement based on sociological, language, and crisis theories. We study the pragmatic meaning of communications by linking it to crisis stages and uncertainty reduction goals. We instantiated the framework in a data collection of local governments communications in Argentina during COVID-19. Our findings indicate that governments reflected specific communication strategies, matching the expected crisis-related stages from the chosen theories. The proposed framework could help government officials to design, monitor, and adjust their communication strategies to achieve efficient information diffusion.