Framing Friction: A Content Analysis Investigating How the CDC Framed Social Media Communication with the Public During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, China December 2019. This zoonotic disease quickly spread through over 100 countries, including the U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency by end of January 2020. Soon after, many states issued mandatory stay-at-home orders, which caused adverse effects for agricultural businesses and food supply chains. During this crisis, Centers Disease Control Prevention (CDC) shared information social media platforms such as Facebook. study sought to understand how CDC framed direct communication public about issues related COVID-19 using Facebook videos. Five videos directly were selected from CDC’s page analysis. A content framing analysis used determine emergent frames use organization-public relationship (OPR) indicators better entity communicates with during pandemic. Emergent community, protecting yourself, encouragement take action, understanding, fear. conversational tone voice four out five videos, each video demonstrated at least one OPR indicator. Implications work reinforce that can be communicate importance scientific indicators. It is recommended communicators include other similar crises. Future research should seek public’s response type communication.