Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This thesis examines how the 2022-2023 Ebola outbreak in Uganda was constructed and communicated by two key institutional actors: the government of Uganda (GoU) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Drawing on Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be” (WPR) approach and the concept of public pedagogy, the study approaches crisis communication as a form of governance that shapes how problems are defined, how responsibility is distributed, and how citizens are expected to act.

The study adopts a qualitative comparative discourse analysis of official communication materials, including press releases, situation reports, speeches, and social media posts produced between September 2022 and January 2023. The analysis focuses on problem representations, responsibility allocation, citizen positioning, authority, and silences within the communication.
The findings show that the GoU frames Ebola primarily as a behavioural problem, emphasizing generalized responsibility and compliance with public health measures. In contrast, the WHO constructs the outbreak as a technical and epidemiological problem, focusing on surveillance systems, data, and coordinated institutional response. These different framings reflect distinct forms of governance, where the government prioritizes behavioural regulation, while the WHO emphasizes technocratic management and institutional cooperation.

The analysis also reveals important similarities. Both actors operate within a shared medical framework, prioritize institutional expertise, and frame the control of the transmission as their central objective. Structural factors, local knowledge, and socio-economic conditions are largely absent in both forms of communication.

The study contributes to environmental and health communication research by demonstrating that crisis communication is not purely information sharing but plays an active role in shaping governance, meaning-making, and public expectations. It highlights the importance of critically examining how institutional communication constructs crises and influences responses.