(Still) Public Communication Emergency: The Harmony of Communication is Becoming a Challenge
PRINDONESIA.CO |
Wednesday,
April 29, 2020
The government should start preparing crisis management plans.
Iqbal/PR INDONESIA
The government has actually taken anticipatory steps to stop the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia since the end of January 2020. However, as of early March 2020, it seemed there was no government communication strategy to deal with this virus.
JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – Until finally The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, announced the two patients who were Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) positive in Indonesia on March 2, 2020. The case arose when the public did not have enough information about how to prevent the infection. Panic was inevitable. "The government at that time was not coordinated and has not conducted socialization and education to the public massively and intensively," said Emilia Bassar, CEO of the Center for Public Relations, Outreach, and Communication (CPROCOM) through a written statement to PR INDONESIA on Saturday (11/4/2020).
The government seemed surprised and began to lose control of conveying information. Until there was a lot of confusion in information, mutual arguments, and accusations. According to Emilia, this condition arose because from the beginning the government had not yet implemented communication management guidelines during the crisis.
In fact, before the crisis occurs, the government should prepare to start from crisis management planning, forming and training crisis management teams from various directly related Agencies/Ministries (The Ministry of Health, The National Disaster Mitigation Agency, The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and The Office of Presidential Staff), making crisis communication guidelines for stakeholders, to appointing a spokesperson and making key messages agreed by the crisis management team.
She did not deny that even though the President had appointed a government spokesperson and the Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as the Task Force for the Covid-19 Response Acceleration Task Force, the differences in views, decisions and information were still frequently encountered in the field. "Building harmonization of communication within the central government environment is indeed still a challenge in this country," she said. "The Presidential Staff Office and the Ministry of Health have issued a Public Communication Protocol. However, a communication strategy with one command, one main message (a single narrative), and the discipline of the appropriate spokesperson must still be a joint commitment to be implemented," she added.
Therefore, Emilia conducted tight and intensive coordination and communication between Covid-19 handling teams in the central and regional governments to produce the same, current, and accurate data and information. And formed a quick and responsive Crisis Team at the central and in the regions that are part of the Task Force that has been formed.
Consistent and Transparent
The things that must be considered in developing a communication strategy during a pandemic. First, compile a situation analysis through various data or sources. Second, mapping issues, key stakeholders, and communication media that are appropriate to this pandemic situation. Third, create a strategic communication program for the next three months. Fourth, make a monitoring and evaluation design for each communication activity that will be carried out. Fifth, make content proposals per week that contain communication objectives, key messages, and daily content in a week according to the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic issue.
Emilia advised doing transparent, consistent, and informative communication, accompanied by concrete steps. Pay attention to gestures when speaking in front of the public. Show empathy and sincerity in handling a pandemic. "Avoid exposing different data. Don't show conflict in front of the public," she said.
Another thing is empowering local communities up to the neighborhood units (RT)/community units (RW) level to deal with Covid-19. Handle hoaxes with data and information that are true, valid, positive, and entertaining. Don't be taboo with an influencer/public figure who cares about this issue. Give them data and information on handling Covid-19. Let them be creative according to their respective capacities. So, people have another option to receive information. (rvh)
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.jpeg&w=417&h=289 "Afifudin, IndiHome: Orchestrating Empathic Communication")
The government has actually taken anticipatory steps to stop the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia since the end of January 2020. However, as of early March 2020, it seemed there was no government communication strategy to deal with this virus.
JAKARTA, PRINDONESIA.CO – Until finally The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, announced the two patients who were Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) positive in Indonesia on March 2, 2020. The case arose when the public did not have enough information about how to prevent the infection. Panic was inevitable. "The government at that time was not coordinated and has not conducted socialization and education to the public massively and intensively," said Emilia Bassar, CEO of the Center for Public Relations, Outreach, and Communication (CPROCOM) through a written statement to PR INDONESIA on Saturday (11/4/2020).
The government seemed surprised and began to lose control of conveying information. Until there was a lot of confusion in information, mutual arguments, and accusations. According to Emilia, this condition arose because from the beginning the government had not yet implemented communication management guidelines during the crisis.
In fact, before the crisis occurs, the government should prepare to start from crisis management planning, forming and training crisis management teams from various directly related Agencies/Ministries (The Ministry of Health, The National Disaster Mitigation Agency, The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and The Office of Presidential Staff), making crisis communication guidelines for stakeholders, to appointing a spokesperson and making key messages agreed by the crisis management team.
She did not deny that even though the President had appointed a government spokesperson and the Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) as the Task Force for the Covid-19 Response Acceleration Task Force, the differences in views, decisions and information were still frequently encountered in the field. "Building harmonization of communication within the central government environment is indeed still a challenge in this country," she said. "The Presidential Staff Office and the Ministry of Health have issued a Public Communication Protocol. However, a communication strategy with one command, one main message (a single narrative), and the discipline of the appropriate spokesperson must still be a joint commitment to be implemented," she added.
Therefore, Emilia conducted tight and intensive coordination and communication between Covid-19 handling teams in the central and regional governments to produce the same, current, and accurate data and information. And formed a quick and responsive Crisis Team at the central and in the regions that are part of the Task Force that has been formed.
Consistent and Transparent
The things that must be considered in developing a communication strategy during a pandemic. First, compile a situation analysis through various data or sources. Second, mapping issues, key stakeholders, and communication media that are appropriate to this pandemic situation. Third, create a strategic communication program for the next three months. Fourth, make a monitoring and evaluation design for each communication activity that will be carried out. Fifth, make content proposals per week that contain communication objectives, key messages, and daily content in a week according to the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic issue.
Emilia advised doing transparent, consistent, and informative communication, accompanied by concrete steps. Pay attention to gestures when speaking in front of the public. Show empathy and sincerity in handling a pandemic. "Avoid exposing different data. Don't show conflict in front of the public," she said.
Another thing is empowering local communities up to the neighborhood units (RT)/community units (RW) level to deal with Covid-19. Handle hoaxes with data and information that are true, valid, positive, and entertaining. Don't be taboo with an influencer/public figure who cares about this issue. Give them data and information on handling Covid-19. Let them be creative according to their respective capacities. So, people have another option to receive information. (rvh)