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A 黑暗爆料网 Clarion professor of communication recently spent four months in New Zealand to study its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Andrew Lingwall traveled to the capital city Wellington, where he worked with a colleague from Massey University to determine which elements of the country鈥檚  campaign were successful in gaining compliance with health measures like masking, vaccines and social distancing.

In the early days of the pandemic, New Zealand gained attention for controlling community spread of the virus. Unite Against COVID-19 was a full communications plan designed to provide New Zealanders with accurate information while encouraging compliance with health measures designed to slow the spread of the virus.

鈥淲hat we found was that the campaign, although it had to come together quickly in the early days of a public health emergency, was extremely consistent and coherent,鈥� Lingwall said. 鈥淔rom the colors, the campaign messaging, iconography and graphic communications, there was very strong brand identity.

鈥淏ut what鈥檚 interesting is they built this in a scientific way. The title says a lot about their research:

Unite -- Unified source of truth; Against -- The competitive appeal of being 鈥渁gainst鈥� something.

COVID-19: A way to externalize it. The people aren鈥檛 the problem; the virus is.鈥�

Early on, the campaign was very successful, as the country 鈥渄eclared victory鈥� over COVID. In time, as the pandemic鈥檚 negative effects on daily life and the New Zealand economy grew, 鈥渢he campaign鈥檚 wheels began to fall off,鈥� Lingwall said.

鈥淭he campaign needed to be rebranded, and officials also acknowledged they should have networked better with the Maori and Pasifika indigenous populations, some of whom live in very isolated beach communities and don鈥檛 use the health system in the same way.鈥�

Lessons learned

Lingwall and his research partner are analyzing and writing up their findings for a research paper and a best-practices handbook for government and health communicators.

He also is using the experience in the classroom. In 鈥淓xploring Mass Media,鈥� he is teaching the influence of TV, newspapers, radio and social media on public health. The 鈥淢edia Ethics鈥� class has done a unit on truth and how it may depend on the source.

鈥淚 hope to be able to get some PR pros or those in the government in New Zealand to do a Zoom session with our students, to learn how the campaign has evolved,鈥� Lingwall said.

鈥淲e hope this work will help with the next crisis,鈥� he said.