Investigating the prevention and mitigatory role of risk communication in the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Bloemfontein, South Africa

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Investigating the prevention and mitigatory role of risk communication in the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Bloemfontein, South Africa
 
Creator Kunguma, Olivia Mokhele, Mosekama O. Coetzee, Mercia
 
Subject Sociology; Law COVID-19; risk communication; disaster management; legislation; policy; media; disaster communication; Agenda-setting Theory
Description The South African disaster response activities surpass risk reduction since the implementation of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 (DMA) and the National Disaster Management Framework of 2005 (NDMF). Risk reduction, in particular risk communication, remained unexploited until the occurrence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The legislation and policy mandate a proactive approach for disaster management, requiring a focus on disaster risk reduction. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the significance of risk communication as a critical prevention and mitigatory strategy in disaster risk management, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. Key to risk communication success is ensuring adequate comprehension, accurate perception of the disseminated information, and compliance with regulations. Questions of trustworthiness, acceptability, effectiveness, and usefulness of messages and strategies communicated sought answers from the Bloemfontein population. Furthermore, the Agenda-setting Theory provided the grounding for the study. The study sample was picked in a stratified random sampling manner, using the confidence level and margin of error equation. A questionnaire survey was used to collect the data required to achieve the research objectives. Risk communication as a disaster risk reduction strategy implemented concurrently with imposed regulations was found to have played a vital role in mitigating the virus spread. However, the respondents were not aware of the local disaster management centre, which is supposed to be engaged in COVID-19 disaster management activities.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-09-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jamba.v13i1.1130
 
Source Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies; Vol 13, No 1 (2021); 11 pages 1996-1421 2072-845X
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1130/2060 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1130/2061 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1130/2062 https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/1130/2063
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Olivia Kunguma, Mosekama O. Mokhele, Mercia Coetzee https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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