Expert ethos and the strength of networks: negotiations of credibility in mediated debate on COVID-19

Abstract

Summary For public health promotion to succeed, popular support is necessary and the chosen policies and measures have to be perceived as legitimate by the public. In other words, health authorities need to build on and sustain established trust when they recommend a certain policy. When the policy is criticized, this trust is challenged, and the authorities enter into a negotiation of credibility (ethos). In this article, we research a particular instance of such negotiation, drawing lessons for health promotion and for COVID-19 communication. We study a Norwegian television debate in which an MD presented harsh criticism of the health authorities’ chosen crisis response in the early phase of the pandemic. Unpacking the rhetorical constitution of the expert ethos of the MD and of the health authorities, respectively, we find that representatives of the authorities are more open to participation and better at connecting to everyday experiences than the MD, who primarily builds her expert ethos on mastery of scientific language and methods, combined with alarmist rhetoric. Further, we identify main tenets of the public’s reception of the debate through an analysis of 1961 tweets that commented on the program. The analysis indicates that public health authorities might maintain high levels of trust by rhetorically cultivating their positions within institutional and (social) media networks of expertise.

Framing of the COVID-19 pandemic:

“…For instance, the programme "Corona -are the measures strict enough?" on NRK Debatten on 17 March 2020, signalled a discrepancy between Norwegian health authorities and international expert networks (Kjeldsen et al, 2022). Among the four debate programmes in this study, a few may be regarded as entertaining public information programming, while others are more journalistic political current affairs debates, suggesting they address quite different audiences in terms of interest in and knowledge of the pandemic.…”

Trustworthiness Over Time on Twitter: Three Critical Periods for the Norwegian Health Authorities and Political Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…For public health authorities, the insights on how discussions on trustworthiness unfolded over time on Twitter can aid in developing more detailed and context-sensitive communication strategies (van Dijck & Alinejad, 2020, p. 8). The results highlight how ability is the most discussed aspect of trustworthiness, which is definitely an area where the public health authorities would be expected to have the upper hand if only based on their expertise network and experience of handling previous pandemics (Kjeldsen et al, 2022). The fact that so much lay expertise was offered by Twitter users leads to the tempting conclusion that the public health authorities should be relying more on Twitter and put special emphasis on invitational expertise rhetoric engaging in dialogue (Kjeldsen et al, 2022).…”

“…This suggests that rather than expressing trust or distrust, these users utilize Twitter as a platform to raise their own ideas for an improved handling of the pandemic, or to inform others on various issues and perspectives. The informative part of Twitter can be considered to contribute to reducing uncertainty (Mirbabaie et al, 2020) but also to boosting the trustworthiness of the authorities by retweeting their expertise (Kjeldsen et al, 2022). Moreover, while those citing critical/investigative concerns do not criticize the authorities directly, they often point out that the authorities have missed something, and that other considerations should have been taken into account.…”

“…As a platform, Twitter can strengthen the position of authorities as experts but also promote alternative forms of expertise. Kjeldsen et al (2022) studied negotiations of trust and expert trustworthiness in connection with a Norwegian debate program at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing tweets about the program, they found a great deal of trust in the health authorities.…”

Expert Uncertainty: Arguments Bolstering the Ethos of Expertise in Situations of Uncertainty

“…While these congruities can and should be used, depending on the rhetorical problem the expert is faced with, previous research points to the importance of expert networks as a resource in this regard (Kjeldsen et al, 2021). This is certainly the case when the expert is part of the public health authorities.…”