Strategic communication specialists have traditionally been concerned with the contribution that communication activities can have in helping an organisation achieve its higher-order goals and fully exercise its agency as a political, cultural, and social actor that can influence the world it acts in. Successful strategic communication is focused on proving the authenticity of brand values, that can further make the employees feel that their work is purposeful, and can motivate public adherence to the broader-scale actions of the organisation.

In the digital era, marked by changing patterns of audience interaction, strategic considerations seem to lose ground in the face of short-term tactics to grab audience attention, to be seen, liked, and talked about, to be a captivating presence on the popular platforms. While so many practitioners are preoccupied with the latest trends and fads in terms of Internet and mobile platforms, strategic communication would advise a constant confrontation with the higher-order purposes of the organisation, seen both from a managerial point of view, but also from a cultural and meaning-building perspective. The nature and the content of the relationships an organization initiates and maintains with its different categories of stakeholders is the priority for specialists in strategic communication, who must see beyond the joys of phatic communion.

As noise increases in the emerging media, a major challenge for practitioners is not to add to that noise their own contribution, but to create spaces, both online or offline, in which the organisation and its key stakeholders can create the premises for authentic dialogue. Deciding who to talk to prioritarily, which opinions to take into consideration, how to stimulate debate and how to minimize waste or counter-productive communication manifestations (that undermine true dialogue) are all difficult decisions that a communication strategist must now make.

All in all, the strategic work of communication specialists is worth being scrutinized in this new context, as the logic of the new digital platforms poses serious challenges to the classical methods of identifying and engaging with important stakeholders of an organisation, as well as to the classical indicators used to measure the success of a communication campaign.

The Abstracts can be sent at the email address daniel.obada@uaic.ro by October 23th, 2019 and should use the template on our website.

More details about each of the Conference Panels can be read here, while further information on the registration procedures can be found on our website.