ABSTRACT
The aim of this research is to determine how the first and second waves of the COVID-19 crisis had been managed through the official Instagram accounts of the Ministry of Health and Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca as well as which crisis response strategies were used more intensively. The research is limited from March 11, 2020 to March 11, 2021. Another limitation is Ministry of Health’s and the Minister of Health’s Instagram accounts were only examined within the framework of DiStaso et al.’s (2015) crisis response strategies (information-sympathy-apology). The research uses the quantitative content analysis technique. In line with the analyses, the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health were determined to mostly have used visual posts in the form of photos+text in their official Instagram accounts regarding the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the posts both accounts made in the relevant process were mostly related to the pandemic. Among the crisis response strategies, the Ministry of Health and the Minister of Health were also determined to have used the information strategy the most, followed by the sympathy strategy in their official Instagram accounts regarding the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only one post regarding the apology strategy was determined to have been made on the Minister of Health’s account during the second wave of the pandemic.