Strategic Communication and the Global Pandemic: Leading through Unprecedented Times

ABSTRACT This article serves as the introduction article of the special issue, titled Strategic Communication and the Global Pandemic. This special issue of the International Journal of Strategic Communication (IJSC) has one primary purpose – to stimulate serious scholarly research on strategic communication and its management and execution during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 global pandemic. To achieve this purpose, the special issue is organized into three sections covering many dimensions of strategic communication as it relates to the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first section includes research addressing how the messages are developed and constructed through governmental communication, traditional mass media, and social media. The second section focuses on exploring the contingencies that leaders and influencers at various levels need to address in this novel global crisis, as well as the practical, organizational, and societal challenges leaders face. The last section collects research reflecting on how effective public health responses and communication shall be developed. By providing a range of strategic communication scholarship grounded in different academic disciplines and cultural and political contexts, we believe this volume offers an international perspective for scholars and educators to understand the complexity of the topic itself.