“Et ekstremt år” Strategiske og operasjonelle erfaringer fra kommunikasjonsenheten i Kristiansand kommunes arbeid med koronapandemien 2020-2021

Abstract

In this thesis I have looked at the problem “What communications choices did Kristiansand municipality make in its communication of risk duringthe corona pandemic?” This is a casestudy of the communicators in Kristiansand municipality during the first year of the coronapandemic. The method used is semi-structured qualitativeinterviews with selected members of the communication staff together with a groundedtheory analysis of the data using theprogram NVivo. Theories discussed include crisis communications andrisk communications. The framework used in the analysis is based on Kim Witte,Gary Meyer and Dennis Martell'sExtended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) and TimothyCoombs’ further development of the model.The main findings of my study show that Kristiansand municipality’s communicationpractice is mostly in line with relevant theory. Theydo a particularly good job ofcommunicating openness, thinking about their reputationand building trust while communicating about the health-related threat. Inthe thesis I also have suggestions on how communication of a health-related risk can be done even better.