Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), Crisis Communication Principles and the COVID-19 Response in South Korea

"South Korea's COVID-19 response and communication strategies can provide useful insights for national efforts to manage COVID-19 and other possible future infectious disease outbreaks."

The response to COVID-19 in South Korea, which "has become acknowledged as one of a small number of countries that have maintained exceptionally low rates of infection and mortality", grew out of lessons learned from the 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Hoping to avoid a similar failure during the early spread of COVID-19, the government immediately set up an infectious diseases response system, held regular media briefings, and developed cooperative disease control efforts. This case study highlights several communication insights that have emerged from the South Korean national response to COVID-19. In particular, it focuses on how disease control programmes and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been used in conjunction with messaging strategies.

As outlined here, the South Korean government used ICTs in a variety of ways to enhance crisis communication, coordinate large-scale public health efforts and supply chains, and facilitate widespread adoption of preventive measures. For example, during early efforts to impede community transmission of COVID-19, text message alerts were sent to personal cell phones through the cellular broadcasting service (CBS) in order to promptly inform the public about the movement paths of newly confirmed patients. This procedure was deemed to be effective because about 95% of Korean people own a smartphone. Text message alerts were also used to provide practical information about COVID-19, to persuade and encourage people to practise physical distancing and wear masks, and to express gratitude to health professionals.

Other large-scale innovations described here that used ICTs include easily accessible mobile testing stations and a centralised system for sharing real-time data about mask supplies at all of the country's pharmacies to overcome mask shortages. ICTs also played critical roles in efforts to trace and gather information about suspected cases of COVID-19 and to enforce quarantines.

The response and communication strategies were based on principles established by research in social sciences and recommended for pandemic response, including:

• Social marketing, which tries to promote prosocial behaviour changes by making them convenient and easy to adopt - For instance, the Korean government used smartphone apps to make it easier for people to register their presence in potentially risky environments, to verify their compliance with quarantines, and to learn where masks could be purchased.
• Risk and crisis communication, which the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said should be (i) fast, (ii) accurate, and (iii) credible, while (iv) expressing empathy, (v) promoting action, and (vi) showing respect for the general public - The government's adherence to these principles was reflected, for example, in the fact that officials from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) and the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC) conducted briefings twice per day during the outbreak's early weeks to share information and research findings, to correct misinformation, to express empathy for patients, to encourage the public's active participation in pandemic control efforts, to express appreciation for healthcare professionals, and - ultimately - to gain and sustain public trust.
• Normative influence, which was incorporated into communication campaigns to encourage people's participation in and compliance with preventive measures - South Koreans who did not wear masks would feel pressured to do so by observing the behaviour of people around them and encountering public messages such as, "Thanks to everyone participating in social distancing and mask wearing" (descriptive norms). Other messages included appeals to injunctive norms; for example, posters reminded young people to show concern for others and protect the vulnerable: "Please wear masks and maintain social distance to protect your parents and grandparents".

Remaining issues related to pandemic communication for South Korea and other countries to consider include:

• The dilemma of finding the right balance between the need to gather health-related information about infected people and the need to protect privacy.
• Disagreements both within and across cultures about the extent to which individual rights should be weighed against public safety, which have implications for how to effectively persuade the public to adopt scientifically recommended preventive measures.
• The contradictory and sometimes confusing nature of public and government communication about COVID-19, both within South Korea and in places like the US, Brazil, and Belarus. "To avoid such problems, public communication about COVID-19 needs to be consistent, transparent, and delivered by trustworthy experts. In addition, to aid our collective effort to control this pandemic, social scientists have advised against issuing politically divisive messages that scapegoat specific countries and social groups....Instead, they recommend appealing to the common need shared by everyone around the world to eradicate this pandemic."

In conclusion: "Theoretically informed and evidence-based preventive and quarantine measures, enhanced by ICTs and informed by crisis communication strategies, will continue to be key components in global efforts to overcome COVID-19 and other pandemics to come."