Communication Strategies Employed by the Methodist Church Ghana in the Fight Against Covid-19

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has affected Ghanaian populace since March 2020. This has culminated to the use of several communication strategies by the government and other stakeholders to curtail the spread of the pandemic. Despite the deadly nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, little studies have been done on the communication strategies employed by religious institutions in the fight against the pandemic. This study therefore sought to assess the communication strategies the Methodist Church Ghana employed in the fight against COVID-19. Eleven lay leaders and four clergies located in the Accra, Northern Accra and Tema dioceses of the Methodist Church Ghana were selected for the study. A qualitative case study approach was used. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that awareness creation communication, social mobilization and education entertainment were the communication strategies the Methodist Church employed in fighting COVID-19 pandemic. The findings showed that the use of these communication strategies by the church reduced the anxiety levels of members thereby influencing the rate of church attendance. The study also revealed that the Methodist Church Ghana faced misconceptions, attitudinal and financial challenges in employing the communication strategies used in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The findings point to the need for further studies by researchers to focus on other churches or even other religions to ascertain if the dynamics may be different based on the different organisations.