Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities
The COVID-19 pandemic brought extreme challenges and disruption to higher education, resulting in hurried adoption of online teaching. From the point of view of crisis communication, the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced in HE institutions represents an interesting case, because crisis management and...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Lingue Culture Mediazioni |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/2954 |
| _version_ | 1828049596612345856 |
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| author | Giuseppe Palumbo Ann Hill Duin |
| author_facet | Giuseppe Palumbo Ann Hill Duin |
| author_sort | Giuseppe Palumbo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic brought extreme challenges and disruption to higher education, resulting in hurried adoption of online teaching. From the point of view of crisis communication, the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced in HE institutions represents an interesting case, because crisis management and communication were primarily, if not exclusively, directed at internal stakeholders (essentially, students and staff ). We present a case study that compares and contrasts the COVID-related responses of two different universities: the University of Minnesota, in the U.S., and the University of Trieste, in Italy. In particular, we look at the sets of documents issued by the leadership of these universities over a period of 23 months between February 2020 (the start of the health crisis) and December 2021. The analysis of the documents revealed that unexpected spaces of freedom empowered instructors. We identify four discursive traits associated with these spaces: definitional change, code glossing, and the use of engagement markers and permissives. However, this empowerment changed over time, as universities became eager to go back to “normal” and reinstate restrictions from pre-pandemic times. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T19:14:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fcbcb5ae44444f2384fe2121774962db |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2284-1881 2421-0293 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T19:14:14Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Lingue Culture Mediazioni |
| spelling | doaj.art-fcbcb5ae44444f2384fe2121774962db2023-01-30T10:41:51ZengLED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia DirittoLingue Culture Mediazioni2284-18812421-02932023-01-0192416010.7358/lcm-2022-002-gpad1681Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two UniversitiesGiuseppe Palumbo0Ann Hill DuinUniversity of TriesteThe COVID-19 pandemic brought extreme challenges and disruption to higher education, resulting in hurried adoption of online teaching. From the point of view of crisis communication, the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced in HE institutions represents an interesting case, because crisis management and communication were primarily, if not exclusively, directed at internal stakeholders (essentially, students and staff ). We present a case study that compares and contrasts the COVID-related responses of two different universities: the University of Minnesota, in the U.S., and the University of Trieste, in Italy. In particular, we look at the sets of documents issued by the leadership of these universities over a period of 23 months between February 2020 (the start of the health crisis) and December 2021. The analysis of the documents revealed that unexpected spaces of freedom empowered instructors. We identify four discursive traits associated with these spaces: definitional change, code glossing, and the use of engagement markers and permissives. However, this empowerment changed over time, as universities became eager to go back to “normal” and reinstate restrictions from pre-pandemic times.https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/2954covid-19crisis communicationhigher educationinstitutional communicationinstructional direction |
| spellingShingle | Giuseppe Palumbo Ann Hill Duin Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities Lingue Culture Mediazioni covid-19 crisis communication higher education institutional communication instructional direction |
| title | Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities |
| title_full | Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities |
| title_fullStr | Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities |
| title_short | Making Sense of the Response to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Case Study of Crisis Communication in Two Universities |
| title_sort | making sense of the response to covid 19 in higher education a case study of crisis communication in two universities |
| topic | covid-19 crisis communication higher education institutional communication instructional direction |
| url | https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/2954 |
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