Persuasion in Instructions of COVID-19 by Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health: A Recent Observational Study

This study analyzes the persuasive strategies of instruction used by Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. This is intended to emphasize the given instructions and advice provided by the Saudi Ministry of Health. Rapid information dissemination of disclosure is a priority for virus attack prevention. Twenty-four texts (STC SMS) on Coronavirus are randomly selected and analyzed to identify the major persuasive strategies exploration used as baseline. To measure the nature and relevance of the persuasive strategies, textual content analysis is used. It is concluded that MoH has used a variety of persuasive techniques and tones. It is revealed that the MoH uses the strategies of persuasion in isolation or combined with each other. These strategies involve the use of logos, pathos, and ethos. It is also found that in every persuasive strategy there are different techniques that can be specified and pointed out, affirming that multiple techniques may apply in one strategy or another. Moreover, the most recurrent types of persuasive strategy used in text exploration are ethos and logos, while in persuasive techniques; simple and direct language, emergency information language and personal pronoun are predominantly used based on the content analysis. In addition, purposeful and reasonable tones are highly emphasized in the text exploration.