The proposed project focuses on local and national government crisis communication in the United Kingdom and the United States during three historically impactful pandemics: tuberculosis, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The aim of the project is to examine the discursive strategies of representation and marginalisation as well as innovative lexical and discursive patterns, and universal linguistic mechanisms present in crisis communication. Using diachronic data, e.g. statements and press releases published in newspapers and official government websites, as well as Tweets during COVID-19, the project will produce crucial new insights into how well public crisis communication align with the guidelines of effective crisis communication, and whether different groups and segments of the public with their varying backgrounds have been taken into account when planning the message.

2023

2027