Abstract
This chapter provides an experiential account and analysis of the communication and community engagement dimensions of the Chile and Paraguay responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the first few months of the emergency. The responses, including their communicative dimensions, in these two countries were permeated, and often defined, by multiple factors beyond the public health domain. The chapter examines the intersection of social, political, and economic factors of the response and its communicative dimensions, and the relevance of public and community trust as a core dimension of the COVID-19 response. The authors put forward several recommendations for prevention and response focused on key elements of the communication process including the need to revisit how communication strategists approach elements such as messengers, channels, audience segmentation, and norms and behaviors.
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Notes
- 1.
Gobierno de Chile (n.d.). Cifras Oficiales Covid-19. Gob.cl - Cifras Oficiales (www.gob.cl).
- 2.
Chile territory is subdivided in “comunas,” which are administrative units that can be roughly compared to municipalities, each with its own elected mayor. For instance, Santiago, the capital of the country, is composed by 32 comunas or municipalities, while Greater Santiago, that is the whole metropolitan region, has 52.
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Mefalopulos, P., Obregon, R. (2022). An Experiential Account of the Risk Communication and Community Engagement Early Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile and Paraguay: Lessons and Recommendations. In: Manoncourt, E., Obregon, R., Chitnis, K. (eds) Communication and Community Engagement in Disease Outbreaks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92296-2_8
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