Narrators and Role Expectations: Extending the Narrative Policy Framework Through Social Identities in Times of Crisis

• In Event: State Policy Variations in Disaster Governance: Analyzing the Role of Evidence, Emotions, Discretion, and Policy Windows

Abstract

Across the United States (U.S.), governors and agencies have varied policy responses to address crises. The unprecedented scale and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the absence of a coherent federal response, enhanced the role of governors and state actors, who varied widely in their crisis framing and narratives of the pandemic. It also necessitated the involvement of experts and scientific expertise to mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic, when their voices and visibility were greatly amplified, particularly during press conferences. Studies on the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) have given limited attention to how narrator identities and institutional roles shape narrative discourse. We analyze COVID-19 gubernatorial press conferences to understand how role expectations shape the stories told by U.S. governors and health experts. We draw from the NPF, Social Identity Theory, and Institutional Theory to explain how institutional roles influence narrative structure and content. Results show role expectations did not extend to narrative form: governors and experts utilized characters, defined problems, and proposed solutions at similar rates. Instead, role expectations reached narrative content in that governors were more likely to define the problem as operational and experts were more likely to define it as scientific. Supporting further expectations related to institutional role, partisan context shaped gubernatorial narrative elements but not those of experts. What shifted the cast of characters was whether speakers defined the problem or proposed solutions in alignment with their role expectations. Experts who defined the problem as scientific were more likely to use victims and villains and less likely to cast beneficiaries and allies, whereas governors proposing action-oriented solutions were more likely to cast heroes, beneficiaries, and allies and less likely to mention victims and villains. We advance the NPF by focusing on how roles expectation shapes narrative production, integrating insights from Social Identity Theory and Institutional Theory to demonstrate how professional identities intersect with context to influence narration. Such insights matter for crisis management by highlighting how the public may hear different stories about the same crisis depending on the narrator.

Authors

• Ryan Lofaro, Georgia Southern University
  Presenting Author

• Arjola Balilaj, Jacksonville State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Gorgin Mansourian, Jacksonville State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Alka Sapat, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author