In order to successfully resolve a public health crisis, it is necessary to achieve the implementation of the desired (self-)protective response among individuals. Based on theory, what plays a crucial role in this, is individual's perceived efficacy. Crisis managers' communication can contribute significantly to building perceived efficacy. Their messages should consist of information that promotes the ability to perform the recommended response (self-efficacy) and of claims that the response will work (response efficacy). The thesis examines crisis communication of the key actors who managed the public health crisis caused by the covid-19 epidemic in Slovenia – the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Public Health –, on the social network Facebook. Given the importance and relevance of the topic and the lack of existing research, the main goal of the thesis is to answer the research question, to what extent the mentioned actors' Facebook posts communicate efficacy and its two dimensions – self-efficacy and response efficacy – and how. To this end, a qualitative content analysis of 232 Facebook posts in the selected time period was conducted and the data were quantified as well. The results show a wide presence of efficacy messages among the studied actors and highlight the gap in the representation of its dimensions: while self-efficacy is widely communicated, communication of response efficacy generally proves to be insufficient. The findings of the study provide insight into an important aspect of crisis communication within the public health crisis and can serve as one of the starting points for communication improvements in potential future similar crises.
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