Can quantitative ethnography help tell the COVID-19 story?
May, 2020
Thrilled to be part of the ICQE data challenge which took place April 26 – May 3. I was part of the Nordic Team with Karoline Schnaider (Umeå University), Stefano Schiavetto (State University of Campinas; Brazil), Florian Meier, and Benjamin Brink Allsopp (Aalborg University), and Barbara Wasson (University of Bergen). For our contribution, we were interested in how government health agencies communicate with the citizens to get them to understand the virus and take responsibility. The team examined nearly 250 press releases, amounting to 2,500 lines of text, from the ministries of health in all three countries. We are also pleased to say we have a full research paper submitted to ICQE conference taking place in January 2021.
Our results clearly illustrate how each country responded up from January to March of 2020. The results correspond to national identity folklore and how these Scandinavian countries see each other. However, they all share a common bond of high trust in their government agencies. Additionally, the team was featured in article at the University of Wisconsin Madison, School of Education.
