The Role of Municipalities in Communicating for Community Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Niagara Region’s Crisis Communication

Abstract

Background: Municipal governments have played an important but underappreciated role in crisis communication for community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis: This study analyzes the Niagara Region municipal webpage communication from web archives over the first two years of the pandemic, employing computational research methods and close reading to understand the strengths and deficiencies of municipal COVID-19 communication. Conclusion and implications: This study finds that the communication of the upper-tier municipality Niagara Region addressed the needs of citizens; however, the communication of the lower-tier municipalities varied and showed deficiencies.