Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.15176/vol58no104
Oscillations in Trust and Communication Challenges: Doctors as Media Stars During the Corona Crisis in Croatia
Ozren Biti
orcid.org/0000-0002-9228-0438
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
This paper deals with the media exposure of medical experts in management positions in state institutions during the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia – the Minister of Health, Vili Beroš, the director of the Croatian Public Health Institute Krunoslav Capak and the director of the Dr. Fran Mihaljević Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotić. The article focuses on the first several months of their work within the National Civil Protection Headquarters and as representatives of the healthcare system. The analysis of the media narrative is an attempt to investigate the influence of their public communication on the citizens’ level of trust in them during the corona crisis. The article discusses oscillations in trust and communicative challenges identified in the analysis from the point of view of Giddens’s and Luhmann’s views of trust in late/reflexive modernity, by applying their ideas to the healthcare system. In addition to recognizing the interconnections between fear, risk and trust, the article points to the metaprocesses of mediatization and celebritization of doctors in sociopolitical crises.
Keywords
trust, coronavirus, corona crisis, fear, risk, doctors, communication, media stars
Hrčak ID:
259038
URI
Publication date:
18.6.2021.
Visits: 1.470 *