What’s Changed in Crisis Comms Since 2020

The role of a public communicator changed in 2020 — and it hasn’t stopped changing since. A pandemic, civil unrest, polarized politics, and the rise of AI created a new environment where facts compete with feelings and speed competes with accuracy. If you communicate for a public agency today, your job isn’t just to “get the message out.” It’s to hold the line between chaos and clarity.

Before vs. now: the shift that matters

Before 2020, crisis comms still leaned heavily on a cadence: gather details, draft a release, hold a briefing, post an update. Social media mattered, but it wasn’t the main arena. Five years later, the arena is the timeline. Information moves first; official statements chase it. Communities expect continuous updates, not daily briefings. A gap of minutes can be the difference between confidence and confusion.

What changed isn’t just speed — it’s the density of information. There are more sources, more lenses, more live streams, and more people with a platform. That density is why the fundamentals you already know — clarity, consistency, credibility — now sit on a much steeper hill.