Call for chapters: Sociopolitical Outcomes of Communicating Health Issues Globally

CALL FOR CHAPTERS FOR AN EDITED VOLUME

Topic: Sociopolitical Outcomes of Communicating Health Issues Globally

Editor: Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi

Note: Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge are interested in pursuing the publication of this book

The protracted war between Russia and Ukraine and the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine, with almost 10,000 people killed; 4,000 children in Gaza alone, according to Aljazeera reports (Nov. 2023), have civil unrest and more angst among the pro-Euro-American cum Judeo-Christian world and the pro-Islamic-Arabic world.

Those disasters are in tandem with health problems caused by climate change worldwide. As the world watches babies and the elderly being crushed by bombs, skyscrapers crushed by bombs, and the wounded being scurried to health centers under attack from military forces, it might be easy to classify those actions as anxiety, dismantled cultures and economies, re- negotiated socio-political values, slowed national plans to tackle climate change impacts, and forced rich and poor countries to redefine economic priorities. While trade flows are currently above pre-pandemic levels, their effects on specific services, products, and trade partners are grossly diverse, creating pressures on most business sectors and supply chains. Moreover, financial institutions, international development organizations, and regional blocs have been working work to build policies and economies for better lives, including the World Bank, UNDP, UN agencies, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank. Countries with firm legal systems, good health facilities, and substantial military capabilities have quickly recovered from the pandemic. However, emerging economies like India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and Brazil may have missed this opportunity created by the pandemic to increase their investments in politically fragile regions.

For their part, social media platforms and established media organizations have deliberately or unwittingly spread misinformation, worsening the pandemic’s socioeconomic and cultural impacts on a global scale. In short, the virus has generated discord more significant in scale and impact than the Cold War, which the US, the Soviet Union, and their allies led for forty- five years. Thus, beyond the economic challenges, pandemics can quickly destabilize peace, security, and geopolitical and international relations.

This book examines how top government officials and influential media manipulate public opinion about public health issues, especially epidemics with global appeal. It presents the Government as a global propaganda tool for mitigating or promoting epidemics. It also considers news gathering processes, political roadblocks, and delivery of epidemic content to vulnerable populations, how social conditions and Xenophobia are managed during epidemics, and proposes steps for a structured information management program in the 21st Century and beyond for nations and media institutions.

Contributors for this volume streamline their arguments on how propaganda, state- controlled information flows, misinformation on social media, and ‘regular’ news networks could affect rural and urban populations and informed and uninformed groups. Contributors can also discuss how those activities complicate the efforts of health workers, scientists, scholars, epidemiologists, pedagogy on pandemics, and effective communication of pandemics to limit their impact on human life.

Your chapter should contain one of the following topics:

1. How newspapers, radio, television stations, and other established media frame epidemics
2. How traditional media and public officials frame epidemics
3. How sponsored media and officials sensitize the public against the spread of the disease.
4. How social media platforms (e.g., YouTube videos, Facebook, WhatsApp) framed Covid-19
5. Role of higher learning institutions (colleges, universities, seminaries) in fostering emotional learning during COVID-19
6. Communication and miscommunication of epidemics in social media. Perspective from the Global South
7. The Coloniality of Knowledge and Being in Mediated Discourses about Vaccines
8. Mobile Communication and Diabetes Mellitus 2 Self-management during COVID 19 Pandemic
9. Communication of epidemics in religious communities: Cases in Arab countries
10. Regional cases include exploring journalistic challenges in covering/reporting political situations with consequences for understanding and addressing pressing health hazards.
11. The role of social media in manufacturing fear about the disease. Cases from Central America, South America, Africa, Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East,
12. Managing Xenophobia Amid the Pandemic
13. Coloniality of Knowledge in mediated discourses about epidemics. Examples
14. Self-organizing and social marketing campaigns during the pandemic (Cases in Europe)
15. The Priming and Framing of diseases and other pandemics during epidemics Local/traditional Perceptions of health beliefs and the spread of epidemics
16. Opportunities and Challenges of journalistic health reporting-national and regional cases
17. Opportunities and Challenges in collecting, processing, and disseminating messages on pandemics – (e.g., political constraints, resources, access to news and information, etc.)

• Coping with social distance media campaigns during epidemics within the social order of communalism in the Global South

Potential contributors are sourced from research, academic/teaching institutions, and trained senior government officials worldwide. Case studies using survey tools and analyses of existing content, perceptions of how pandemics might be communicated in the future, and suggestions for productive, sustainable communication of pandemics are particularly welcomed.

This project welcomes only a single-author submission. TIMELINE:

• Please submit a 500-word abstract and a Bio no longer than 300 words by April 15, 2025 to Prof. Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi here: engwainmbi@gmail.com copying ngwainmbiauthor@outlook.com.
  • Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by May 1, 2025
  • Selected authors will be directed to submit complete manuscripts (7,000 -8,000 words, including references, in Word format, following the 7^th APA

style) by  October 31, 2025

• Acceptance of an abstract does not guarantee publication of the book chapter. Delays in addressing the Editor’s queries may result in the replacement of the contributor.
  • The expected publication date for the book is Spring, 2026.

Please send abstracts to engwainmbi@gmail.com. In the subject area, write GLOBAL COMMUNICATION ABSTRACT.