Health Communication Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

The concept of health communication has transformed into the concept of ‘strategic health communication' in the 21st century, especially with the increasing inclusion of the private sector in health communication practices. Changes and transformations experienced in the 21st century have differentiated the perception of health and illness. In this regard, the biomedical model based on health has given place to the social model, gained a health-based definition, and started to be regarded as a whole well-being from a physical, mental, and social aspect. In this chapter, considering that the concepts such as ‘health' and ‘illness' do not exactly refer to the biological realities and health is a social and universal institution, the reflections of the new paradigm in question on the disciplines of communication and public relations will be analyzed and scrutinized with regard to the health and illness paradigms that have changed and updated with the COVID-19 pandemic.