Communication Determinants in Times of Crisis in Covid-19

The perception and practices of the inhabitants of Goma in the face of messages relating to the 2019 coronavirus pandemic is a reality approached here under a new light, that of the decoding of political and psycho-media factors at the base of the level of perception of the inhabitants of Goma in the Mikeno district with regard to messages relating to the Covid-19 in the DRC. Based on Carl Houland's credibility-trust communication theory, the author situates the level of the problem by determining the share of responsibility of the sender, the message and the receiver in the problem of the populations' resistance to the recommendations made to them. She adopted a qualitative approach based on historical, descriptive and analytical methods, as well as on observation, documentation and semi-structured interviews with a group of opinion leaders, residents and shopkeepers in Mikeno. It shows that the perception of the inhabitants was complex and ambivalent.