The words that work in a crisis
Coronavirus is changing everything, including how we communicate. It’s hard to be unmoved by a stark headline like this one from Reuters, featured in the international news organisation’s coverage of the subject: ‘A deadly virus spreads around the globe, killing and infecting thousands.’ Sobering to say the least.
Words like ‘sweeping pandemic’ and ‘global outbreak’ would be pretty frightening at the best of times, even more so when we lack any conception of what they could mean for our day-to-day lives. As a result, it’s easy to find oneself obsessively terror-scrolling in a state of helpless news-cycle-fuelled panic; at the other extreme, faced with a rising cacophony of conflicting information it’s tempting to fall into the trap of blocking it all out completely.
These disparate reactions are catalysed by language, and triggered by our instinctive reaction to it—now more than ever, careful word choice is crucial to ensuring that messages do their work accurately. And at the same time, when driving the point home effectively it’s important to enlighten without endangering, and heighten awareness without fostering mass hysteria.
How do we even begin to seek meaning in this alien landscape? Cracking open a trusted old friend like the dictionary is helpful. With the online equivalent to the weighty tomes of decades past now the default option, search data confirms what’s on all our minds—providing valuable insights into the ebb and flow of the public’s evolving thirst for information on a whole new lexicon that at best, is somewhat unfamiliar.
This unfamiliarity can be unsettling; and dispelling this is key. For example, what exactly is a pandemic? As designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘A pandemic is declared when a new disease for which people do not have immunity spreads around the world beyond expectations.’ Though it’s still not a term to be taken lightly, understanding that it’s all about the numbers makes it feel somewhat less strange, and perhaps in turn that bit less scary.
So reliable definition helps to calm the conversation, and aids in establishing previously unused terms that have now become indispensable in everyday conversation; ‘cocooning’, ‘self isolating’, ‘sheltering in place’, ‘physical distancing’. This last example is a case in point of how carefully-considered language rises to the occasion of providing information that is meaningful and accurate—the more concrete ‘physical distancing’ having become the go-to when the softer ‘social distancing’ wasn’t getting the message across.
Even a black-and-white sounding term like ‘lockdown’ has its pitfalls. In Ireland, though strict measures designed to encourage staying at home and avoiding others as much as possible were put in effect, Irish leader Leo Varadkar preferred to avoid the ‘lockdown’ label. “I’ve always been reluctant to use the term lockdown because it means different things to different people and can mean different things in different jurisdictions”.
He’s not wrong: the same words can have varying interpretations, and this presents its own set of challenges. What makes one person hear ‘shelter in place’ and decide to hit the beach, while another decides to go to the shops to clear the shelves of toilet paper? Associate Professor Vicky Lai of the University of Arizona's Department of Psychology in the College of Science explains: “To protect ourselves, we process danger-related inputs faster and remember them longer. But some people think in very straightforward, concrete terms while others associate the same words with abstract, invisible meanings. The latter may act irrationally because there is no visual confirmation to corroborate their thoughts. For them, the threat may be everywhere—or it may be nowhere”.
This is uncharted territory for all of us: with so many considerations, what’s on our Coronavirus Communication Checklist? Seek out and cite trusted sources for definitions and knowledge; explain the unknown and establish familiarity; be clear, direct, simple and specific; and do your best to avoid terms that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Above all, remember that we don’t all react to information in the same fashion—and that a little reassurance goes a long way in a time when every one of us is trying to find the path forward.