Gestión de la comunicación digital de facebook del Ministerio de Salud durante la crisis sanitaria por la pandemia de la Covid-19”

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the communication management of the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador on the social network Facebook during the months of March-July 2020, in the context of the health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. What are the parameters for effective communication during times of crisis like a pandemic? Communication, particularly risk communication, plays a substantial role in ensuring the protection of vulnerable sectors outside emergencies of all kinds, even more so in the context of health crises. From this point of view, content monitoring is necessary to establish effective communication patterns in the context of a crisis. Therefore, the research is approached through a non-experimental cross-sectional study, with a mixed approach; same as through bibliographic research and content analysis, it allows contrasting the publication parameters of the posts of the Ministerio de Salud Pública del Ecuador and the guidelines suggested by different entities such as the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In this way, effective risk communication is characterized by being clear, coherent, transparent, and empathic. Understanding this, as a communication focused on the target audience and their needs and their social context; in a way that encourages individual and collective behavior change, and in turn, protects the safety and well-being of the population. For the case study, it can be concluded that the effectiveness of the messages that are issued during a health crisis depends to a large extent on how they are prepared and how strategic they are when communicating risk situations.