Political crises confront news media with uncertainty, time pressure, competition over the definition of reality, and disruptions in information flows; therefore, strategic media management requires the integration of environmental sensing, editorial decision-making, information governance, sensemaking, and trust preservation. This study aimed to identify and organize media practices in political crises and to develop a conceptual framework for contextualization in IRIB News Network. A systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis were conducted using PRISMA 2020-aligned screening. The final synthesis included 813 reports corresponding to 812 independent study units. The findings showed that strategic media management in political crises is organized into seven dimensions: strategic intelligence and foresight; network and interorganizational coordination; adaptive and learning capacity; information-environment governance and communication architecture; sensemaking, representation, and framing; audience and public-opinion dynamics; and trust, social capital, and accountability. Strategic intelligence and coordination provide the basis for decision-making and operational continuity; information governance and sensemaking shape media outputs; and audience dynamics and trust return social feedback to editorial decision-making and organizational learning. Of the 812 independent units, 800 were assigned to one dominant dimension, whereas 12 reflected the cross-dimensional concept of the “link between media action and changes in crisis dynamics.” Sensitivity analysis confirmed the stability of all seven dimensions after excluding 55 low-quality/limited units and within a core of 347 strong/high-quality units. Overall, effective strategic media management in political crises depends on the cyclical integration of these seven capacities, and the framework can provide a foundation for contextualization and expert validation in IRIB News Network.