The Role of Municipalities in Communicating for Community Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of Niagara Region's Crisis Communication.

This article examines the role of municipalities in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, in communicating for community resilience during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a combination of computational analysis and close reading of thousands of archived municipal webpages from March 2020 to December 2021, the study assesses how upper-tier (Niagara Region) and lower-tier municipalities educated, informed, and engaged citizens through digital content. Findings indicate that while Niagara Region's communication was comprehensive and aligned with best practices in crisis communication—employing text, infographics, videos, and social media—the lower-tier municipalities showed considerable variation, with some providing limited or delayed information, especially regarding vaccination. The study highlights the importance of consistent, clear, and emotionally resonant communication by local governments to foster community resilience and suggests that disparities in municipal communication could affect equitable access to critical information during prolonged crises.