The crisis response to the Türkiye-Syria earthquakes in 2023: Instructional emergency risk communication by the government, the national disaster management agency, and NGOs via press releases and microblogs

In February of 2023, two earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude hit Türkiye and Syria killing 56,000 people and impacting the wellbeing of 18 million survivors. Among the most relevant institutions communicating about the disaster were the Turkish President, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the Turkish Red Crescent, and the NGO AHBAP (Anadolu Halk ve Barış Platformu) that was founded by the popular Turkish singer Haluk Levent. This study provides a comparative analysis of the crisis response messages shared by these four institutions to understand the instructional character of messages in their press releases and posts on Twitter/X. Specifically, we examined the extent to which these messages emphasized specific content elements of the IDEA model of instructional risk communication compared to reputational crisis communication strategies. In total, we analyzed 137 press releases and 1086 tweets posted between February 6 (day of the first earthquake) and August 5, 2023. Most of the messages were released by the Red Crescent Türkiye (38%) and AFAD (36%), followed by the Turkish President (17%) and the AHBAP NGO (9%). The results showed that most content focused on informational updates about the earthquake. Although limited in frequency, the instructional messages that were offered focused primarily on information needs for managing secondary risks such as food, water, and shelter for survivors. None of the institutions emphasized image repair.