Mendeley  

Zotero  

Dashtian Moghaddam S V, Modares Kheybani S. Corpus-assisted Discourse Studies of the Tehran COVID-19 Crisis Management Headquarters Guidelines. Disaster Prev. Manag. Know. 2026; 16 (2) :380-417
URL: http://dpmk.ir/article-1-796-en.html

Background and objective The COVID-19 pandemic, as a global public health emergency, attracted considerable attention from the international community. During the pandemic, the effective management of COVID-19 by public health authorities depended on the efficient dissemination of health-related information. The Tehran Metropolitan COVID-19 Crisis Management Headquarters, as one of the key institutions, developed guidelines for managing the crisis during the pandemic. However, a preliminary examination of these guidelines indicated limited effectiveness due to linguistic complexity, a lack of adaptation to the needs of diverse audiences, and inconsistent use of technical terms. 
Method In this study, a corpus-assisted discourse studies approach was employed to examine the discourse of the COVID-19 crisis management guidelines issued by the Crisis Prevention and Management Organization of Tehran Municipality. A specialized monolingual corpus consisting of 452,624 tokens extracted from 109 PDF files of COVID-19-related guidelines was compiled. The data were analyzed using Sketch Engine and WordSmith, and high-frequency keywords, such as virus, corona, hand, materials, disease, and distance, were identified.
Results The results showed that the discourse employed in the guidelines was of limited effectiveness due to linguistic complexity, the absence of audience-based categorization, and a lack of standardization in technical terminology. Overall, the findings emphasized the necessity of shifting from a control-oriented discourse to a participation-based, trust-building discourse in urban crisis management. The results further indicated that simplifying linguistic structures, designing guidelines tailored to different levels of the public, and using digital technologies can improve the effectiveness of crisis communication. 
Conclusion This study highlights the importance of corpus-assisted studies in identifying linguistic patterns and improving crisis management, and it provides a framework for developing effective guidelines in future crises.