ABSTRACT
The strategic management of communication during the COVID-19 pandemic by national governments has played a fundamental role in controlling the spread of the disease. In addition, in the case of Latin America, the variety and political and ideological antagonisms have simultaneously configured various contexts and scenarios in the region that have conditioned this management and the main associated issues. In this context, Argentina represents a paradigmatic case. With a left-wing populist government, it was the first country to apply restrictions on mobility in the region and maintain them over time, almost the same as Europe. In addition, it made an agreement with Russia to experiment with its vaccine. Despite all this, it has the worst indicators of contagion and mortality in proportion to number of inhabitants and has recently been classified by Bloomberg as one of the five countries with the worst conditions to go through the pandemic. In this chapter we propose to analyse and discuss the public communication strategies carried out by the national government and their impact on the population based on the results obtained in the framework of the international research EUPRERA COM-COVID network in Argentina. The key findings revealed that television, social media (e.g., Twitter) and online newspapers are key sources of information and that media selection has an impact on the direction of the pandemic. The actions and messages displayed have not been precise and show a wide dispersion in the degree of their acceptance and appreciation.
