Mistakes Made by State Authorities in Conducting Communication With the Public in the Face of a Crisis Situation and Their Consequences on the Example of the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Poland

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 represented a crisis situation of global proportions. The peculiarity of this event, its scale and its duration meant that existing crisis management procedures were put to an exceptional test. A particularly important sphere in dealing with the epidemic threat proved to be properly conducted communication with the public. Due to the specific nature of the epidemic situation enforcing social isolation and the scale of the event encompassing the entire world – it was the media that was the main source of information about the threat and ways to combat it. The aim of this article is to present and analyse the errors in communication conducted by state institutions towards the public through online media during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.