Abstract

Effective crisis communication on social media targets and tailor’s crisis information to influence risk perception and ensures messages are accepted. The aim of the current research is to map the research available and summarize key findings of the guiding principles and strategies for social media-based risk and crisis communication during emerging infectious diseases. North American-focused literature assessing risk and crisis communication via social media during emerging infectious diseases between 2009 and 2021 was obtained and examined. From an analysis of 52 sources, we identified five descriptive themes related to the characteristics associated with the receiver of crisis messages, the source of crisis messages, and characteristics associated with increased message acceptance and uptake on social media platforms. The current review builds on prior reviews through the inclusion of additional qualitative studies incorporating public perspectives. The majority of included sources were quantitative U.S. studies focused on COVID-19. We found that social media attributes, features, and analytics can be used to enable interaction, promote amplification of crisis messages, and to better understand the information needs of various subpopulations. Additional research is needed to better understand how to effectively communicate via social media to subpopulations impacted by emerging infectious disease.

Key words: Crisis communication, risk communication, social media, emerging infectious disease, COVID-19, guiding principles.