"Det är en ovanlig, men ganska allvarlig bild" : En komparativ studie av Folkhälsomyndighetens kriskommunikation gällande två covid-19 vaccin

Building trust in vaccines depends on understanding perceptions of socioeconomic status, historical experiences, and religious affiliations. Therefore, rhetorical audience understanding in crisis communication concerning vaccine crises is crucial to enable effective crisis management and repair confidence in vaccines. With this study, the Swedish Public Health Agency's understanding of the public, as it appears in its crisis communication in connection with Astra Zeneca's and Moderna's vaccine pause, is analysed. As trust in vaccines depends on the public's trust in the authorities communicating vaccine information, the agency's crisis communication was analysed based on William L. Benoit's Image Repair Theory to identify main crisis strategies. Additionally, the strategies were analysed with Edwin Black's theory regarding The Second Persona to determine how the public was constructed in the crisis communication. The method of this study was a close textual analysis based on Michael Leff's definition. The findings show that the authority on both occasions conducted two principal strategies: Minimization and Corrective Action. However, the strategy Provocation could only be identified in the communication regarding Astra Zeneca and the strategy Differentiation exclusively in statements concerning Moderna's vaccine pause. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the communication concerning Astra Zeneca's vaccine pause gives the impression of a calm and expectant audience. In contrast, the audience in Moderna's vaccine pause is interpreted as sceptical