Doing relational negotiation through numbers: A study of trust repair in COVID-19 press briefings

Abstract

Conceptualizing numbers as a multimodal semiotic resource, the study takes a social-constructivist perspective to explore the interpersonal dimension of numerical claims in crisis communication. Bringing into dialog a pragmatic view of trust repair and a critical approach, the study analyzes a corpus of COVID-19 press briefings by the Thai government after three incidents of disease control failures and explicates the way numbers in various modes interact with spoken comments to negotiate trust. The findings indicate that numbers constitute a key component of the briefings, predominantly targeting integrity, ability and, to a lesser extent, benevolence. Prioritizing trust restoration, the state obfuscates the data sources, uncertainties or limitations and dismisses the cause of trust breaches and a thorough investigation of the flaws as irrelevant for the issue at hand.