Since late February, when the transmission of COVID19 to Iran was confirmed, IRNA took a number of special measures to raise public awareness and to provide people with the latest news and accurate information about the disease.
The big challenge about Coronavirus outbreak was that people didn't have any experience of facing such a major pandemic. Furthermore, there was no pattern whatsoever for the media to handle it; therefore, IRNA developed an innovative approach to the problem.
The innovative approach was meant to support two objectives:
To raise public awareness To provide people with necessary informationResponsibility Assignment
Five departments in IRNA control and facilitate the whole process of news production: domestic, international, provincial, research and multimedia news departments. The following table shows, in brief, what IRNA did and how responsibilities were assigned to different departments.
No.
Measure
Responsible dep.
1
Initiation and coordination of My Role in Fighting Coronavirus campaign in Iranian social networks
All news departments
2
Addition of a separate section to IRNA Persian website about the latest news on COVID19
All news departments
3
Special coverage of the latest news, findings and developments about Coronavirus in other countries
International news department
4
Establishment of a special desk for fact-checking the rumors that go around social media about Coronavirus
Research department
5
Brining the business, social & cultural consequences of the epidemic into focus, like in lifestyle, sports, arts, growth of online business, etc.
All news departments
6
Conducting local and national polls about coronavirus epidemic
Research department
7
Daily production of educational and informative videos about Coronavirus and issues concerning the epidemic
Multimedia department
8
Daily production of infographics & motion-graphics about coronavirus and issue concerning the epidemic
Multimedia department
9
Bringing into focus the issues relating to COVID19 in distant areas, like among the nomads in some mountainous regions
Provincial news department
10
Presenting a correct image of the developments in Iran by delivering the most important domestic news about COVID19 on the 9 non-Persian IRNA websites
International news department
Multimedia Reports
Because photos and short videos play a dominant role in the flow of information through social media, IRNA created many videos addressing the following subjects:
Instructions by WHO and Iranian Ministry of Health Inspiring videos to encourage people to joint campaigns against coronavirus Introduction of the activities by government and private organizations as well as NGOs to control the virus epidemic Demonstration of ...Read full story
