Risk governance during the COVID?19 pandemic: A quantitative content analysis of governors' narratives on twitter

The current study addresses the communication aspect of risk governance during COVID-19 pandemic by examining whether governors' tweets differ political party, gender and crisis phase. Drawing on Centers for Disease Control Prevention's Crisis Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) model framing literature, we examined salience five CERC's objectives, namely acknowledge with empathy, promote protective actions, describe preparedness/response efforts, address rumours misunderstanding segment audience. Using a deductive inductive approach, analysed 7000 Twitter messages sent 50 US state governors period 13 March 2020 to 17 August 2020. Our findings suggest that aligned objectives varying degree. We found main interaction effects phase objectives. New emergent included attention mental health, call social influencers promoting hope. Implications are discussed.