GUEST EDITORS

Andreia Fernandes Silva, ISVOUGA – Higher Institute of the Entre Douro and Vouga Region, Portugal

Sandrina Francisca Teixeira, Polytechnic of Porto, Porto Accounting and Business School, Portugal

Maria Antónia Rodrigues, Polytechnic of Porto, Porto Accounting and Business School, Portugal

Jorge Remondes, ISVOUGA – Higher Institute of the Entre Douro and Vouga Region, Portugal

The current context has revealed the weaknesses of the contemporary world in several areas, but, above all, it has again emphasized the vulnerabilities of personalities, governments, parties, companies and organizations concerning the management of crisis communication and how you deal with risk (Jong, 2020, 2021), failure and the unexpected (McGuire, Cunningham, Reynolds, & Matthews-Smith, 2020).

Inevitably, social networks have come to accelerate dissemination and, as a result, image and reputation become sensitive elements of an ecosystem that requires parsimony when it comes to match stakeholder expectations (Coombs, 2007; Coombs & Holladay, 2010). This new world requires strategy when communicating about human and property losses, but also aims to avoid credibility breakdowns and disastrous damage to notoriety and reputation (Mocho, 2021).

Sitting in front of the screens, the different audiences watched more aware of how to communicate and act, especially in moments of tension and rupture. Despite the numerous lessons learned throughout history, and dissected in case studies that have become a reference, there is still much to be done to make organizations and people more skilled and resilient in communicating properly (Forni, 2019). At a time when anticipation and prevention require well-structured plans and accessible application, including management and appropriate response to events and reactions, until the evaluation, when conclusions are drawn from the procedures and results (Coombs, 2007; Mitroff, 1987), it is important to discuss communication, now from the perspective of an event that has truly turned the world into a global village.

After the lessons learned since the 1980s with the Tylenol, Bhopal, Chernobyl cases, going through major crises that shook the brands, organizations and governments capabilities such as the tragic events of Exxon Valdez, Malasya Airlines, Hurricane Katrina, La Tocha, Fukushima, or the BP case (Gonçalves, 2011 the need to know better how to manage emotions responding to borderline situations emerges (Jin, Pang & Cameron, 2010). 

In the last decade, the imminence of anomalous situations with global effects, namely those related to information leaks (Davidoff, 2019), cyberattacks and the now recurrent concern of cyberterrorism, have forced the rethinking of theories and identification of good practices.

Hence, the International Journal of Marketing Communication and New Media invites researchers to submit original, previously unpublished and complete manuscripts, prepared according to the journal’s guidelines. Accepted languages include English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Possible topics for this special number include but are not limited to:

• Marketing in a pandemic context;
• Advertising in the context of a pandemic;
• Public relations in a pandemic context;
• Corporate events in a pandemic context;
• eCommerce in the context of a pandemic;
• Consumer behavior in a pandemic context;
• Impact of Crises on Stakeholders; 
• Crisis Communication and Social Media;
• Measuring Crisis Impact.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for submission: September 30, 2021

Acceptance notification:  November 30, 2021

Publication: January 30, 2022

REFERENCES

Coombs, W.T. (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication. Sage.

Coombs, W.T. & Holladay, S. (2010). The handbook of crisis communication. Wiley.

Davidoff, S. (2019). Data breaches: Crisis and Opportunity. Addison-Wesley Professional.

Forni, J. J. (2019). Gestão de Crises e Comunicação. Gen Atlas.

Gonçalves, G. (2011). Narrativas de defesa e culpa nos discursos organizacionais, in Pragmática: Comunicação Publicitária e Marketing. Estudos de Comunicação. Labcom.

Jin, Yan; Pang, Augustine; & Cameron, Glen T. (2010).The role of emotions in crisis responses: Inaugural test of the integrated crisis mapping (ICM) model. (2010). Corporate Communications: An International Journal. 15, (4), 428-452. Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business.

McGuire, D., Cunningham, J. E. A., Reynolds, K., & Matthews-Smith, G. (2020). Beating the virus: An examination of the crisis communication approach taken by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Covid-19 pandemic. Human Resource Development International. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779543

Mitroff, I. (1987). Effective Crisis management. Academy of Management Perspetives 1(3): 283-292. 10.5465/AME.1987.4275639.

Mocho, A. J. (2021). Crise nas empresas. Comunicação com os Media. Bnomics.

Jong, W. (2020). Public leadership in times of crisis: Lessons to learn from a crisis communication point of view.Communication Teacher. 10.1080/17404622.2020.1824296.

Jong, W. (2021). Evaluating Crisis Communication. A 30-item Checklist for Assessing Performance during COVID-19 and Other Pandemics. Journal of Health Communication. 10.1080/10810730.2021.1871791.