Leaders try to disrupt ‘pandemic fatigue’
He has been a lawyer, a politician and, for the past few weeks, an amateur afternoon chat show host.
Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim’s daily live Facebook addresses during the coronavirus pandemic have offered viewers 40 or so minutes of somber news, calming advice, stern warnings — stay home or else!, mundane announcements and a little entertainment.
One minute the head of Connecticut’s largest city will talk the illnesses’ grim spread and mounting
casualties. And the next minute Ganim may offer an update on street sweeping, interview guests such as the zoo director or the mayor’s probate judge brother, display photos of spring flowers, or acknowledge residents tuning in.
“I know we got Jan, Emily, Sharon, Ida,” Ganim said at the start of Thursday’s broadcast, ending with, “C’mon back tomorrow, we’ll talk some more.”
The cacophony of constant data about the health crisis, whether valid, inaccurate or conflicting, can be numbing. Still, municipal leaders across Connecticut have tried to cut through the din with their own guidance and local news.
“The challenge is ... people are either oversaturated with information or isolated,” said Mayor Ben Florsheim of Middletown. “It’s hard to square that. But we are using every means of communication available.”
Emphasis on “every” — live video addresses and online town halls, phone and text alerts, emails, updates on social media, updates using municipal websites, press conferences and media interviews, signage, billboards and, at least in Ganim’s case, commercials.
And even with all that effort, Gage Frank, communications director for New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, noted, “I still know there’s groups of folks not hearing the message.”
Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said part of her mission is to give constituents heeding the advice to stay home to fight the virus’ spread a sense of community.
“They are watching the news and hearing about the federal (response) or the state’s, but they feel comforted by receiving pertinent details about our town,” said Kupchick. “It makes them feel connected ... when they are feeling really isolated and filled with anxiety.”
Sometimes municipal leaders have risked adding to existing confusion by announcing local emergency measures, such as when Ganim during one Facebook appearance ordered an 8 p.m. curfew for Bridgeport that neither Gov. Ned Lamont nor other municipalities were pursuing. Ultimately the mayor had to clarify that the curfew was voluntary and he had no power to enforce it.
Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling in late March, after consultation with industry representatives, imposed tougher restrictions on his city’s supermarkets and stores to further separate shoppers from each other and from staff — guidelines that were quickly adopted statewide to avoid a confusing patchwork of new rules.
Andrew Baklik, the chief of staff for Derby’s mayor, said that lower Naugatuck Valley city has sought to avoid “making unilateral decisions.”
In early April another Valley municipality — Ansonia — held a Town
Hall meeting for the community via the Zoom video conferencing site that has become an indispensable means to carry on government functions, run companies or simply connect isolated families and friends.
“There was some good back and forth with the residents who tuned in,” John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, said. Another was planned with local businesses.
Leaders of smaller municipalities that are not in Connecticut’s pandemic hot spots, such as towns in Litchfield County or east of New Haven along the shoreline, are all in touch with constituents, though not necessarily with the same regularity and intensity as peers in highlyimpacted big cities where there are new developments daily.
Elected officials in Guilford and Madison, for example, said they send out coronavirus-related notifications every few days. Sharon First Selectman Brent Colley used last week’s communication to try to rally support against Gov. Ned Lamont’s decision to use the Sharon Health Center for virus patients.
Litchfield First Selectwoman Denise Raap has gone live on Facebook at least three times a week with updates. But unlike the big city leaders who have employees doing the filming, Raap at the end of one broadcast reached out and turned her camera off.
Back in the Naugatuck Valley, Oxford First Selectman George Temple still prefers the low-tech approach, providing his cell phone number: “If someone has an issue they can call me at any time.”
The urban mayors have been setting the standard in terms of aggressive outreach, driven by the steady rise in coronavirus infections and concerns about ensuring their hospitals are not overwhelmed with patients.
Ganim went farther than mostand launched a handful of social media, television and radio advertisements featuring himself talking about what precautions to take against coronavirus and thanking healthcare workers and first responders.
Gov. Ned Lamont has been featured in pro bono public service advertisements promoting the state’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home” campaign. Ganim’s office ignored repeated requests from Hearst about the costs of the mayor’s effort, but said the goal is to seek federal reimbursement because the advertisements are a public service.
New Haven’s Elicker has held regular online press conferences, and used everything from social media to posting signage at bus stops, but also launched a billboard campaign: “Spread the Facts- Not the Virus.” In addition to the mayor, Director of Public Health Maritza Bond is always present on the Zoom conferences.
New Haven and other municipalities have also employed the Everbridge emergency notification service to issue announcements and updates through robo-calls and text messages.
Middletown’s Florsheim said that city also uses Everbridge, but warned that emergency officials suggest it be used judiciously because “over time it’s not overly effective. It’s a way to get information to people, but only if the need is urgent.”
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton has been holding daily Facebook chats similar to Ganim’s in Bridgeport. Perhaps because he and Ganim are veteran politicians and former gubernatorial candidates, the two seem more comfortable and casual using that format.
Norwalk’s Rilling, New Haven’s Elicker and Stamford Mayor David Martin have tended to be more business-like in how they communicate during the pandemic.
Boughton said he had not intended to do regular Facebook appearances, but the first few proved popular.
“As long as there’s an appetite there we’ll continue to do it,” he said. While the only one featured on camera, Boughton banters with his offscreen public relations director, Taylor O’Brien, and fields audience questions, like how to get a haircut with salons closed.
Boughton jokingly recommended the Flowbee, a vacuum-like product made famous in pop culture through infomercials.
“We want to take the load off people’s shoulders just a little bit, but we don’t want to minimize in any way the tragedy going on around us,” Boughton said of the briefings’ mixed tones. For example, he will start with updates on the toll the crisis has had on Danbury, and may eventually suggest books and television shows for constituents to pass the time at home.
Richard Hanley, an associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University, said efforts by local elected officials can help to provide residents with necessary information during such a chaotic time.
But Hanley also wondered how much those messages were getting lost in “the persistent news coverage and press conferences, mixed in with disinformation, miracle cures and other content flowing from social media.”
“The fact is it’s just added to the information flow that, to me, is overwhelming,” Hanley said. “I do think ‘pandemic fatigue’ is quickly emerging as a problem in terms of people wanting to get out of the house and turn away from information. And that’s dangerous.”
Hanley said, “Political leaders need to understand whether or not their messages are adding to that fatigue or clarifying existing pronouncements.”