When public health emergencies occur, risk communication from authorities to individuals living in the community is essential to inform people about what is happening, seek to engage them in protective behaviour, address concerns, and create an overall feeling of support and collaboration towards limiting the spread of a disease. Yet, institutional communication is impacted by several challenges and a major challenge is nowadays the blooming of misinformation and disinformation.

With reference to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the objective of this course is to provide knowledge, strategies and tools to identify and respond to suboptimal information that can negatively impact institutional communication during public health emergencies. Specifically, participants will develop competences and skills on the following topics:

Each course can be taken separately. Together they provide a comprehensive programme of training. The courses involve a mix of learning methods with a particular focus on the active involvement of participants.

A set of conclusive slides gives concrete advice on how to manage disinformation.

The theoretical background of the course is grounded in disciplines including: linguistic and rhetorical analysis, argumentation theory, critical thinking and persuasion research, theories of advertising and social marketing, and the cognitive and behavioural sciences.

Every month there will be the possibility to talk with the authors of this course, discuss case-studies or ask for advice on communication in the field. The dates and time of these online tutorials are displayed here on a regular basis.