In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health- and civil-contingency agencies—referred to here as public health authorities (PHAs)—in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark turned to social media to disseminate pandemic recommendations and information. This study explores the social media crisis management strategies employed by Scandinavian PHAs. Specifically, we apply a multiplatform research approach to assess communication objectives (Instruct, Support, Manage Reputation, and Solicit Interaction) across three social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (currently known as X). Introducing a series of hypotheses based on previous scholarship, we detail the prevalence of different objectives across platforms and countries. The results indicate prominent use of reputational management, particularly on Twitter, while instructive information emerged as a highly used communication objective in Sweden and Denmark. Overall, the communicative trends remained parallel across nations, despite Sweden implementing a more relaxed crisis management strategy. The main distinction in Sweden’s approach manifested in a relatively lower emphasis on the pandemic by its PHAs compared to Denmark and Norway. National differences in crisis communication objectives indicate that Norwegian PHAs stand out in terms of using reputational management, while Sweden stands out in employing more supportive information on Instagram.

中文翻译：

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在数字化空间中管理流行病：评估斯堪的纳维亚公共卫生当局的社交媒体方法


为了应对 COVID-19 大流行，瑞典、挪威和丹麦的卫生和民事应急机构（此处称为公共卫生当局 (PHA)）转向社交媒体来传播大流行的建议和信息。本研究探讨了斯堪的纳维亚公共健康协会采用的社交媒体危机管理策略。具体来说，我们应用多平台研究方法来评估三个社交媒体平台——Facebook、Instagram 和 Twitter（目前称为 X）的沟通目标（指导、支持、管理声誉和征求互动）。我们根据之前的学术成果引入了一系列假设，详细介绍了跨平台和国家不同目标的普遍性。结果表明，声誉管理的广泛使用，特别是在 Twitter 上，而指导性信息在瑞典和丹麦成为高度使用的沟通目标。总体而言，尽管瑞典实施了更为宽松的危机管理策略，但各国之间的沟通趋势仍然保持一致。瑞典方法的主要区别在于，与丹麦和挪威相比，其公共健康管理局对这一流行病的重视程度相对较低。危机沟通目标的国家差异表明，挪威公共医疗机构在使用声誉管理方面表现突出，而瑞典则在 Instagram 上使用更多支持性信息方面表现突出。