Keep Calm and Make GIFs: Communicating COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand

Date
2023-06-01
Authors
Halliday, Matthew
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Intellect
Abstract

The early stages of the global covid-19 pandemic threw into relief the communication skills of governments and their leaders. Aotearoa New Zealand was known for its exceptional communication response and elimination of the virus in this initial phase. Much of the praise was attributed to the communication skills of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. However, this study focuses on the work of Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris, a science communication collaboration that aided public understanding in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. In March 2020, during the initial wave of Covid-19, microbiologist and science communicator Dr Siouxsie Wiles teamed up with cartoonist Toby Morris to help simplify her message and reach a wider audience. Work from their collaboration has been shared globally, translated into dozens of languages and used in press conferences by the Prime Minister of New Zealand. This case study uses a VUCA framework in a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with Morris and Wiles, and the communications they produced. It asks what characteristics of this collaboration helped people navigate the global VUCA situation of Covid-19 and whether an appropriate counter-VUCA model exists for this communication context.

Description
Keywords
Covid , GIFs , New Zealand , Science communication , social media , VUCA , 1903 Journalism and Professional Writing , 2001 Communication and Media Studies , 4701 Communication and media studies
Source
Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies, ISSN: 2001-0818 (Print), Intellect, (Communicating Chaos: New perspectives on VUCA), 245-266.
DOI
Rights statement
Copyright © 2023 Intellect. All rights reserved. Authors retain the right to place his/her pre-print version of the work on a personal website or institutional repository. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in (please see citation) as it is not a copy of this record. An electronic version of this article can be found online at: (Please see Publisher’s Version).