This study analyses COVID-19 communication, focusing on government communication in Indonesia during the first two years of the pandemic (January 2020 – December 2022). It maps various forms of government communication, including press conferences and media interviews with government ministers, as well as the official spokespeople appointed to lead the government response onto key points in the spread of COVID-19. It also reflects critically on the power dynamics and sociocultural attributes such as familial obligations, religious values and practices that impacted on Indonesian health communication and the government’s capacity to effectively manage the pandemic. 

The findings presented in this research offer for a more grounded understanding of communication during a pandemic and important lessons from the Global South that to date has thus far received a scant scholarly attention. The unique insights and new perspectives gained contribute to the advancement of both communication theory and practice related to complicated prolonged crises that is usually understood from a predominant western lens.

Ivana is a PhD student in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University. Her PhD research investigates the role of communication during complicated, prolonged crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indonesian context. She has degrees in public relations and strategic communications from Monash University and Deakin University.