Paracrisis, Misinformation, and Clarification: How Government Public Relations Tackle Fake Official Letters

Abstract

This study examines how the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform managed a paracrisis triggered by misinformation on social media, specifically the spread of a fake official letter announcing the appointment of contract-based government employees as civil servants without proper assessment. It is the government ministry mandated to formulate and implement civil service policies, regulate recruitment and competency-based assessment, and oversee bureaucratic reform to ensure meritocracy and integrity within Indonesia’s public administration system. This research is built upon a post-positivist paradigm with a single case study descriptive approach, employing a qualitative research design through in-depth interviews with public relations officers of the Ministry and an analysis of its social media posts. Results show that the response to address the consequences of the fake official letter echoes the corrective strategy posited in Coombs’ misinformation paracrisis strategy. It is revealed that as authorities and budgets can affect misinformation paracrisis management, the knowledge of organizational products and policies will influence and accelerate the decision-making process to solve the crisis.