Relationship building and message planning: An exploration of media challenges and strategies used during school crises at the P-12 level

“We Are Trying to Communicate the Best We Can”: Understanding Districts’ Communication on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Research on K-12 educational institution's crisis communication has primarily emphasized their ability to manage the challenges (immediate and longer term) facing students and parents after an event such as a school shooting (Mazer et al, 2015) or a natural disaster (Kubicek et al, 2008). During such crises, communication with parents during a crisis is a major concern (Kubicek et al, 2008), necessitating preparation on the part of institutions to have a media plan to be able to respond quickly (Payne et al, 2018).…”

“…No longer being physically present in a school setting relegated communication between schools and their communities to the digital realm, including social media platforms. Past research inside and outside of education has shown that social media is used during times of crisis to seek information (Austin et al, 2012; Mazer et al, 2015; Payne et al, 2018, Stieglitz et al, 2017) indicating that social media has a role in modern crisis communication, and an examination of K–12 educational institution’s social media use may provide insight into how, beginning in March 2020, they communicated about their response to the pandemic.…”

“…While the methods in which schools and educators have responded to crises have been documented (Carpenter et al, 2020;Greenhalgh & Koehler, 2017;Mazer et al, 2015; 2 Thompson et al, 2017), K-12 school districts' social mediabased communications-specifically their crisis responseshave been previously investigated mainly about school shootings (Mazer et al, 2015;Payne et al, 2018) and for outbreaks of the H1N1 influenza strain (Nasrullah et al, 2012). Consequently, there is the need to understand their communication surrounding a very different-and salient-type of crisis, a long-term, gradually unfolding challenge around a global pandemic.…”

"We are trying to communicate the best we can": Districts’ communication on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…No longer being physically present in a school setting relegated communication between schools and their communities to the digital realm, including social media platforms. Past research inside and outside of education has shown that social media is used during times of crisis to seek information, (Austin, et.al., 2012;Mazer, et al, 2015;Payne, et al, 2018, Steiglitz, et al, 2017 indicating that social media has a role in modern crisis communication, and may provide insight into how K-12 educational institutions, beginning in March 2020, communicated about their response to the pandemic.…”

“…While the method in which schools and educators respond to crises have been documented (Authors et al, 2020;Greenhalgh & Koehler, 2017;Mazer et al, 2015), school districts' social media-based communications-and specifically their crisis responses-have been previously investigated mainly in reference to school shootings (Mazer, et al, 2015;Payne, et al, 2018). Consequently, there is the need to understand their communication surrounding a very different-and salient-type of crisis, a long-term, gradually unfolding challenge with universal impact where district responses are still time-sensitive.…”