With our plurithematic issues we intended to draw the attention of researchers, policy-makers, scientists and the general public to some of the topics of highest relevance. Scholars interested in guest editing a thematic issue of Media and Communication are kindly invited to contact the Editorial Office of the journal (mac@cogitatiopress.com).

Published Thematic Issues



Published issues are available here.

Upcoming Issues



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Volume 8 , Issue 4



Title: The Ongoing Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere



Editor(s): Emiliana De Blasio (LUISS University, Italy), Marianne Kneuer (Hildesheim University, Germany), Wolf J. Schünemann (Hildesheim University, Germany) and Michele Sorice (LUISS University, Italy)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-31 January 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 1-15 April 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: One of the main assumptions about the impact of Internet and social media points to a (more or less significant) transformation of the public sphere. The literature however provides us with competing views on the direction and the quality of this ongoing transformation: Against the backdrop of decreasing trust in the institutions and processes of modern democracies, digital technologies have repeatedly been loaded with hopes for increasing citizen engagement and participation through a broad range of democratic innovations. In this vein, social media would have a mobilizing and empowering impact enabling citizens to interact with each other or with politicians circumventing other institutionalized channels of communication including journalists as gatekeepers. In the best form, this could lead to broad and inclusive deliberation. On the other hand, such optimistic scenarios have been countered by more pessimistic outlooks like the fragmentation and atomization of the public sphere and the creation of filter bubbles and echo chambers. This perspective would include the discourse on hegemony, on media and digital capitalism, as well as the potential of manipulation. Besides this normatively loaded debate, other open questions refer to aspects like the possibility of a transnational public sphere based on online connectivity, the quality of public deliberation, and new forms of networked publics. In our thematic issue, these questions will be addressed by a broad range of international experts from political science, media and communication sciences. The authors will present theoretically informed empirical studies covering different social media and a variety of national societies.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 8 , Issue 4



Title: Children’s Voices on Privacy Management and Data Responsibilization



Editor(s): Ralf De Wolf (Ghent University, Belgium) and Mariek Vanden Abeele (Tilburg University, The Netherlands)

Submission of Abstracts: 15-31 December 2019

Submission of Full Papers: 1-15 May 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Over the past two decades, substantial research has been devoted to how individuals manage their privacy in relation to technological innovations such as social media, recommender systems, wearables, IoT, and smart cities. Increasingly, children are also navigating and experiencing these technologies and their complexities. Because these technological innovations drive on children’s personal information, it is oftentimes assumed that children need to develop certain awarenesses, skills and attitudes that help them to manage their personal data responsibly, thereby safeguarding their personal information. While there appears to be agreement on the empowering potential of privacy literacy for children, some scholars have lately voiced their concerns over the burden that this responsibility places on children and their capacity for resilience. A pertinent question concerns the role of society in mitigating such data responsibilization, for example by putting the focus on the responsibilities of service providers and other stakeholders, rather than exploring how and to what extent children need to be cognizant, literate, and responsible for their personal information. While a balance between empowerment and protection is suggested, it appears difficult to obtain. Given that children are key stakeholders in this debate, it is surprising that very little attention has been given to their opinions, perceptions and experiences. This is unfortunate, as their stories may inform about how children themselves perceive the responsibilities of the different actors involved. Moreover, their narratives may inform about how the social positions of children in contemporary digital societies are reflected in this debate. This thematic issue of Media and Communication aims to amplify the voices of children and invites scholars to examine their practices, perceptions and opinions with regard to privacy management and data responsibilization. We are especially interested in empirical research that investigates how children think about how their personal information might and should be used, as well as how they define their own and other actors’ rights and obligations, but also welcome critical analyses of the current debate. This thematic issue welcomes submissions on topics involving, among others, sharenting, intimate surveillance, privacy literacy, personalized advertising, social media and social games. Example questions that are relevant include (but are not limited) to the following: What do children think about their parents sharing personal information about them?

How do children perceive parental monitoring through social media, apps and or wearables?

In what ways do children experience surveillance in (online) educational contexts (e.g. digital learning environments)? What is their opinion on data collection and usage by schools?

How do children experience and what do they think about privacy literacy?

How do children think about personalization and data usage in social games (e.g., Clash Royale, Farmville)?

What do debates surrounding children and privacy management reveal about contemporary notions of childhood, parenthood, privacy, empowerment and responsibility?

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 8 , Issue 4



Title: Freedom of Expression, Democratic Discourse and the Social Media



Editor(s): Maria Elliot (Linnaeus University, Sweden) and Kristoffer Holt (Linnaeus University, Sweden)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 December 2019

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 May 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Freedom of expression is regarded as a corner stone of democratic societies. Historically, traditional media has served as the principle forum for the public discourse, which is so imperative for upholding a democracy associated with deliberation and accountability. With the advent of social media and social networking sites, the conditions for this democratic discourse changed in several ways. New forums for political debates and discussions have evolved, forums that are governed by different norms and rules than those that were predominant in the pre-digital media world. Even though the possibility for the public to actively partake in the public discourse has increased significantly, actual participation is still often limited to certain groups and fractions. Audience fragmentation, personalisation of digital media output and the network principle imbedded in social media have nourished apprehensions about echo chambers and balkanization, and in the long run the demise of democratic discourse and democracy itself. The discourse of social media is governed by a logic of its own, different from the logic that we know from traditional media. However, the ramifications of this are not restricted to the social networking sites, the blogs and the discussion forums on internet—they spill over on the traditional media, for instance through the dissemination of fake news and when overinflated storms of opinion get turned into regular news. Furthermore, this is taking place in a social and political context that in many Western societies is undergoing an increasing polarization. This polarization is picked up by different groups on social media where it gets amplified and sometimes distorted. This interaction between traditional democratic discourse, social media and the political climate has altered the conditions for expressing different opinions and ideas in the public sphere. These changing conditions, and the consequences these changes may have on the public’s possibility to exercise their freedom of expression, are the main focus of this issue.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 1



Title: Disinformation and Democracy: Media Strategies and Audience Attitudes



Editor(s): Pere Masip (University Ramon Llull, Spain), Bella Palomo (University of Málaga, Spain) and Guillermo López (University of Valencia, Spain)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 February 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Recent events such as the victories of Trump in the US, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Brexit in Great Britain, show how the public sphere is no longer configured exclusively by the media, but rather by new actors such as technological platforms (Google, Twitter, Facebook,...) or hyperpartisan media, which face citizens with important challenges that result in a growing polarization. Polarization and the configuration of echo-chambers, together with the consolidation of filter bubbles, stimulates the creation and distribution of fake news and other forms of disinformation. In the current digital environment, disinformation is amplified and any dissonant voice is expelled from the predominant discourses. While users tend to believe that they act autonomously, evolutionary, cognitive and neurological phenomena induce to confirm their own convictions and to refuse antithetical information. Thus, the illusion of certainty and the extreme identification with the group and the lack of diversity intensify. In this context, the objective of this themed issue is to deepen knowledge about the dynamics of creation, dissemination and consumption of fake news and other forms of disinformation. Topics of interest for the issue may be related, but not limited, to the following: Genealogy of post-truth and its different expressions: misinformation, disinformation, manipulation, fake-news, conspiracy theories, rumors, memes,...

Origins and historical evolution of disinformation;

Fact-checking and digital platforms for verifying public discourse: experiences and results;

Effects of disinformation on democratic stability;

Polarization and success of disinformation: perception and influence;

Reception studies of fake news;

Neuroscience and disinformation;

Active audiences and the fight against the spread of false news: counter-narratives and different civic society initiatives;

Bots and dissemination of fake news: who is behind the massive dissemination of false or manipulative messages?

Algorithmic transparency: the role of platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter in the control of false news;

Regulation and self-control: viability of regulation;

News transparency and fact-checkers in the newsrooms;

Reputation of the sources: Value assignment and social credibility;

Disinformation and human rights;

Media literacy and disinformation;

Trends, styles, and narratives of fake news;

Dynamics of dissemination;

Clickbait and other disinformation strategies.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 1



Title: Games and Communication—Quo Vadis?



Editor(s): Marko Siitonen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Felix Reer (University of Muenster, Germany) and Teresa de la Hera (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 January 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: This issue collects the papers from the ECREA Digital Games Research Section symposium in 2019. The theme of the symposium was ‘Games, Media and Communication: Quo Vadis?’ It concentrated on exploring new innovations in methodology, topics of interest, and connections between game studies and the broader field of communication sciences. Papers presented at the symposium ranged from studies into Virtual Reality gaming to various applications of serious games/games for change, to conceptual ponderings on methods as well as key concepts.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts in a Word file (about 500 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 1



Title: Dark Participation in Online Communication: The World of the Wicked Web



Editor(s): Thorsten Quandt (University of Münster, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 January 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 June 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Just about a decade ago, participation in online media was supposed to be a crucial factor in democratic change and a savior for institutionalized—and somewhat congealed—journalism around the world. The hopes for the new options of online participation were high, both in society and science. Current debates on online communication are in stark contrast to these early hopes: social media seem to be pervaded by hate communication and trolling, communities develop into toxic environments. And democracies around the globe are challenged by a wave of ultra right-wing, religious or ideological campaigns applying a range of online disinformation strategies. In sync to these developments, established information sources and other societal institutions are criticized for spreading misleading information or ‘fake news’—often by exactly the same groups that misuse social networks for their malicious purposes. Some researchers regard this as a double-strategy to undermine existing institutions and set new standards for public communication. There is no consensus in this debate, though: Scientists have discussed worrying effects of these developments, including a growing polarization, diminishing trust in journalism, and a large-scale degradation of civil discourse. However, there are also critical voices who note a lack of empirical proof, paired with a tendency towards simple explanations that follow an obsession with apocalyptic predictions. They criticize the current fascination in mis-/disinformation and online hate as a form of moral panic that greatly overestimates effects, and some even see the current development as a sign of healthy participation—that includes voices at the extreme sides of the political spectrum. In short, there is no unitary perspective that can synthesize these disparate viewpoints on ‘dark participation’ in online media. Given the societal relevance of the issues, it is essential to organize the multi-faceted debate—which is the purpose of this thematic issue.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 2



Title: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Inspirational Media between Meaning, Narration, and Manipulation



Editor(s): Lena Frischlich (University of Muenster, Germany), Diana Rieger (LMU Munich, Germany) and Lindsay Hahn (University at Buffalo, USA)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 May 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 October 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Research has provided consolidating evidence for two processes of entertainment experiences: A hedonic one related to pleasure, suspense, or fun; and a eudaimonic one, resulting from the consumption of moral or meaningful media and associated with feelings of appreciation, elevation, and inspiration (Oliver & Bartsch, 2010; Tamborini et al., 2011; Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004; Wirth, Hofer, & Schramm, 2012). Inspiring media content motivates self-transcendence (Oliver et al., 2018) and contributes to prosocial behavior (Bailey & Wojdynski, 2015) and positive intergroup relationships. Narratives in movies and news articles can reduce prejudice (Igartua & Frutos, 2017; Oliver, Dillard, Bae, & Tamul, 2012), counter disinformation (Sangalang, Ophir, & Cappella, 2019), and increase attraction to democratic activists (Frischlich, Rieger, Morten, & Bente, 2019). At the same time, such “inspiring content” can also have a darker side in the context of manipulative communication such as extremist propaganda, populist campaigns, disinformation, or hate speech. For instance, Islamic extremists use eudaimonic entertainment cues to veil their calls for violence on Instagram (Frischlich, 2020), terrorists across the ideological spectrum frame their motivations in a moral way (Hahn, Tamborini, Novotny, Grall, & Klebig, 2018); right-wing populists refer to collective nostalgia for a rose-tainted past in which their country was great and “pure” (Mols & Jetten, 2014), and “narrative” quality of propaganda videos can foster attraction to extremists (Frischlich et al., 2019). Research has yet to clarify how this dark side of inspirational media content plays out. This thematic issue thus will contribute to a more balanced understanding of inspirational media content by both the “good” and “bad” sides of accordant media communication. More specifically, this thematic issue invites articles addressing the staging and effects of inspirational media in different contexts, with different intentions, and with different beneficial as well as noxious effects. Contributors may address issues including, but not limited to, the following areas: Staging: How is inspirational content used in communication that is not primarily entertainment oriented, for instance in political or strategic communication?

How do anti-democratic actors try to inspire their followers?

What characterizes dark inspiration?

How does inspirational media content contribute to democratic developments or the promotion of beneficial social relationships?

How can we detect meaningful, narrative and inspirational content at scale? What role can computational methods play in this context? Reception: How prevalent are meaningful, narrative, and inspirational communication strategies in non-entertainment-oriented communication in general and in the context of manipulation-oriented communication specifically?

Are there differences across cultures, platforms, or ideologies? Effects: How do users respond to moral, narrative, or eudaimonic entertainment in manipulation-oriented communication?

What role do emotional reactions such as being moved, elevated, or inspired play here?

What are the boundary conditions of inspiring media content?

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 2



Title: Critical Theory in a Digital Media Age: Ways Forward



Editor(s): Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. (Lancaster University, UK)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Increasing digitization of journalism and other forms of media continue to attract the attention of social scientists and sociological approaches to interpret change and to predict the future for audiences and producers alike. However, emerging forms of surveillance and sousveilliance among and by media producers, privacy amid massive data collection, and globalization at the center of digital communication across continents and economies warrants a revision of critical theory within media and communication studies. While critical theory, which deals with, in the words of Horkheimer, that which attempts to “liberate human begins from the circumstances that enslave them” – promises for much engagement with new technologies and interactions of power systems in media and communication, the area largely remains in select corridors of scholarship and industry discussions. There is a need to revisit (and return to) the works that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.K. and U.S. not only as a targeted approach against increasing neoliberalism globally but as commentary about the dangers of established social scientific and sociological approaches to politics, advertising, and journalism that failed to question dominant ideologies of the day. The work of scholars most aligned with contemporary attempts at critical scholarship in journalism and media research amid technological change include Stuart Hall, Hanno Hardt, bell hooks, Marx, and, of course, a host of postmodern theorists. This special issue is an attempt to capture the state of critical theory in journalism, media, and communication scholarship to reveal what deeper meanings exist within dominant, normative assessments of journalism and the Fourth Estate, sociological inquiries into journalistic boundary work, and deterministic interpretations of technology that remain at the forefront of popular journalism and media studies. This issue will not argue against the need for normative work that asks difficult questions about technological advancement or positions journalism fully outside of fulfilling its democratic aims. Yet, the predominant position of this issue is to engage and enlighten researchers to ask about and apply critical positions in order to develop those theories, unveil new ideas about current questions, and plow a way forward for critical perspectives in increasingly digital means of communication. This issue welcomes discussions from a variety of media and communication areas, from journalism and advertising to platform studies, social media networks, virtual reality and AI, to political communication.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 2



Title: Spaces, Places, and Geographies of Public Spheres



Editor(s): Annie Waldherr (University of Münster, Germany), Ulrike Klinger (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) and Barbara Pfetsch (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 August 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 December 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: For decades, scholars have been calling out a spatial turn of media and communication studies. Yet, in public sphere research, spatial concepts such as space and place to date have been mainly used metaphorically. Only few scholars pay attention to the spatial and geographical configurations of public communication in a material and physical sense. In recent years, however, the abundancy of digital trace data offers new opportunities to locate communicative interactions, which has sparked new interest in the spatial turn of media and communication and opens up new perspectives on spaces and places also for public sphere research. Digital location data for example enables to study the places and spaces in which (semi-)public communication takes place. Network analyses of these data makes visible transnational and translocal connections and interactions in digital communication. Studying location data, geographical inequalities between countries, regions, cities, and peripheries may be uncovered, and local contexts of mediated communication such as local public spheres, hyperlocal journalism etc., may be highlighted. The proposed thematic issue aims to gather these endeavors in one place and seeks theoretical, empirical, as well as methodological perspectives spelling out the spatiality of public spheres and combining the analysis of spaces, places, and geographies with long-standing concepts of public sphere research. Contributions may focus, for example, on the analysis of local, hyperlocal, and translocal public spheres, on the spatial spreading of information and misinformation in social media, the localities of social protests, the geographies and spatial inequalities of public discourses, the affordances of public architectures and smart cities for the emergence of public spaces, the interactions of hybrid media and hybrid spaces, etc. We welcome submissions from a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The proposed thematic issue aims to gather these endeavors in one place and seeks theoretical, empirical, as well as methodological perspectives spelling out the spatiality of public spheres and combining the analysis of spaces, places, and geographies with long-standing concepts of public sphere research. Contributions may focus, for example, on the analysis of local, hyperlocal, and translocal public spheres, on the spatial spreading of information and misinformation in social media, the localities of social protests, the geographies and spatial inequalities of public discourses, the affordances of public architectures and smart cities for the emergence of public spaces, the interactions of hybrid media and hybrid spaces, etc. We welcome submissions from a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 2



Title: Gender and Media: Recent Trends in Theory, Methodology and Research Subjects



Editor(s): Sofie Van Bauwel (Ghent University, Belgium) and Tonny Krijnen (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 April 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 October 2020

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Recent global social changes and phenomena like #MeToo and Time’s Up Movement, the visibility of feminism in popular media (e.g., Beyonce or the TV series Orange is the New Black), the increase of datafication, and fake news have not only put pressure on the media and entertainment industry and the content produced, but also generated critique, change and question in the public debate on gender in general and (the back lash on) gender studies around the world. But are these phenomena also game changers for research on media and gender? In this thematic issue we want to provide insight in recent developments and trends in research on gender and media. What are the dominant ideas and debates in this research field and how do they deal with all of the changes in the media scape (Appadurai, 1990; e.g., platformization, the dominance of algorithms and datafication, slacktivism, and gender inequalities in media production). Moreover, how do current debates, theoretical insights and methods communicate with those in the past? The research field has changed rapidly over the last ten years with repercussions on the conceptualisation of gender, its intersections with other identities markers (e.g., age, ethnicity, class, disabilities, sexualities, etc.), and media audiences’ responses to these developments. We welcome contributions within the scope of gender and media and which are topical in the way they introduce new concepts, theoretical insights, new methods or new research subjects.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and send their abstracts (about 250 words, with a tentative title and reference to the thematic issue) by email to the Editorial Office (mac@cogitatiopress.com). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 3



Title: From Sony’s Walkman to RuPaul's Drag Race: A Landscape of Contemporary Popular Culture



Editor(s): Tonny Krijnen (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Frederik Dhaenens (Ghent University, Belgium) and Niall Brennan (Fairfield University, USA)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Since the early 1970s, studies of popular culture have been rooted in Marxist approaches to popular texts. Mostly focusing on subcultures, cultural resistance and popular media (like television, music and magazines) early popular culture studies revealed the political salience of popular culture texts in the organization of (mostly Western) societies. Half a century later, popular culture has changed tremendously: Sociocultural, political-economic and technological developments have transformed the production, distribution and reception of popular culture. The discipline now urges media and cultural scholars to look at the current state of the art of popular industries, texts, producers and consumers on a global scale. While popular culture studies’ roots in Marxist theory are still present—as the political is invariably a focal point of popular culture studies—other themes and approaches have emerged, including queer visibility and representation, ‘race’ and ethnicity, humor and satire, nationhood and nationalism, fandom and fan cultures, reality and mis/information, informal and self-produced culture, sports and mega-events, and transnational media, among many others. This thematic issue aims to examine and explore contemporary trends and topics under investigation by scholars of popular culture, with a particular focus on the contemporary intersections that the study of popular culture evokes, such as cultural studies, (digital) media studies, gender and queer studies, diaspora studies, crip studies, and performance, drag, roleplay and game studies. The issue therefore encourages contributions entailing multiple perspectives on the richness and diversity of the current state of popular culture as a continuously emerging and evolving field of study.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 3



Title: Media Control Revisited: Challenges, Bottom-Up Resistance and Agency in the Digital Age



Editor(s): Olga Dovbysh (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Esther Somfalvy (University of Bremen, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 October 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-28 February 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The thematic issue aims to put forward an alternative approach to the scholarly discussion on media control in today’s world in two ways. First, we aim to re-consider and re-assemble the notion of media control itself, as not being holistic and discrete (control vs. freedom), but by considering it from a more critical and postmodernist perspective as having various modes. Second, this thematic issue aims to bring a “micro” perspective into understanding and theorizing media control. In comparison to the macro perspective, which mainly investigates structural and institutional ways of media control, like the ownership of media capital (Pallin, 2017; Ryabinska, 2011) or the legal regulation of media, we propose a perspective that focuses on the agency of various actors in the processes of media pressure, in addition to the practices of exerting control and resistance to it. We attempt to unpack and scrutinize practices, motivations, and resources of various ways of media manipulation. What is the agency of journalists, media practitioners, and online activists under political pressure? What are the practices of resistance and strategies of adaptation towards growing pressure? How do these practices differ in offline and online media, in institutionalised newsrooms and grassroots media initiatives? What are the actual challenges of media capture in the current technological environment? The proposed thematic issue will contribute to an exploration of the aforementioned questions through an analytical discussion of cases that represent different types of pressures faced by media practitioners and practices of resistance to them. Following the logic of fragmentation and the diversity of media control today, each article will be a case study to explore a particular form or practice. The proposed thematic issue will contribute to an exploration of the aforementioned questions through an analytical discussion of cases that represent different types of pressures faced by media practitioners and practices of resistance to them. Following the logic of fragmentation and the diversity of media control today, each article will be a case study to explore a particular form or practice.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 3



Title: Algorithmic Systems in the Digital Society



Editor(s): Sanne Kruikemeier (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Sophie Boerman (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Nadine Bol (Tilburg University, The Netherlands)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have changed communication delivery modes in society. This is especially noticed by a shift from “mass communication” to increasingly more “personalized” and “automated” communication. For instance, by using a vast amount of data, communicators can increasingly personalize (match messages to characteristics of an individual) and target (send these matched messages to specific people) their messages. As a consequence, algorithms may increasingly be used for automated decision making. This means that data-driven technologies are used to make decision about our life, without the interference of humans. This development instigated a range of new scientific questions concerning the usage of, exposure to, and consequences of algorithms on our online and offline behavior. For instance, it remains the questions how these technological developments influence us to buy, vote, and change our health behavior. This thematic issue will serve scholars who are interested in the controversies related to algorithmic influence in the digital society. Scholarship within this thematic issue will focus on how the use of algorithms have changed communication in various contexts, such as advertising, health communication, political communication, and journalism. Topics include, but are not limited to, online behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, tailored health communication, automated journalism, political microtargeting, news recommender systems, filter bubbles, automated decision making, and chatbots. In sum, this thematic issue will focus on the impact of algorithmic-driven content on both an individual and societal level, and will discuss the benefits and potential risks associated with algorithms. These may include the discussion of efficient and relevant content selection as well as privacy issues and other ethical considerations of algorithms. We are also interested in the technical aspects and big data analysis concerning personalization and targeting. For this thematic issue, we encourage scholars to engage with the suggested topics mentioned with both theoretical and empirical contributions. We are also interested in review and/or meta-analytical papers.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 3



Title: Complexity, Hybridity, Liminality: Challenges of Researching Contemporary Promotional Cultures



Editor(s): Ian Somerville (University of Leicester, UK) and Lee Edwards (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: We live in a time characterised by uncertainty, hybridity, and complexity, when the powerful dualisms that characterised the post-Enlightenment era (nature/society, human/machine, male/female, etc.) are being problematised in a fundamental way. This thematic issue explores how we research the promotional cultures that have become central to the liminal times in which we live. What strategies do we use to explore and attempt to understand the assemblage of technologies, texts, networks, and actors in contemporary promotion? Promotional culture cannot be pinned down to one form, process or purpose, so how do we account for its complex modes of production and deployment in our research questions, methods, and sites? This thematic issue of Media and Communication invites submissions that address the challenges of researching the complex, hybrid, and liminal nature of promotion in a range of ways. Submissions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics: Structures of promotion: Platforms, suppliers, industry structures, networked movements, industry hybridity, and blurred boundaries between professional territory in theory and practice; Technologies of promotion: Modes of production for promotional work, including digital technologies (data, AI, algorithms, bots) as well as old (but still current) techniques such as press releases, events, and sponsorships, display advertising, and their effects on the development of promotional work; the power of promotional industries and the diffusion or limitation of promotional culture; Agents of promotion: ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ practitioners and organisations; producers and/as audiences; non-human agents and their effects on promotional campaigns, circulation, and impact; Representations of promotion: Practice, practitioners, organisations, industries, and professional fields as good, bad, inevitable, normal, deficient, diverse, or a matter of professional pride, and their continuity and change over time. Effects of promotion: From populism in politics to excessive or ethical consumption, to social and political activism and change; from racialised, gendered, and classed audiences, messages and images to subaltern discourses and representations that reassert the power of the ‘other’ on a local, national, and global scale; Ethics of promotion: From deontological, teleological or virtue ethics, to an ethics of practice, feminist ethics, globalised ethics, or, alternatively, contractual ethics, ethics in the digital sphere, and their effects on practice; Methods of promotional research: Challenges of researching the digital, excavating promotional ideologies, confronting professions, engaging audiences through academic work, and the risks and realities of research that can equally promote change or speak into a vacuum.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 4



Title: New Forms of Media Work and its Organizational and Institutional Conditions



Editor(s): Salla-Maaria Laaksonen (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Mikko Villi (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 December 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The thematic issue explores the widening scope of media work and the institutional and organizational conditions that support new forms of media work. The media industry has undergone significant economic, structural, and technological changes during the past few decades, including changing patterns of ownership and digitalization of media production, distribution, and consumption. Media work has been affected, for example, by the emergence of new digital players and changes in consumers’ media behaviour (Villi & Picard, 2019). The inclusion of social media in media work patterns (Nielsen & Ganter, 2018) and other digital platform-centric practices are emerging as a response to the new, digitalized media environment. As a result of increasing competition, media organizations need to consider strategic communication and branding activities (e.g., Laaksonen et al., 2019; Malmelin & Moisander, 2014). These factors among many others have influenced the ways of working and content of work in the media as well as the organizational dynamics in media organizations. The changes give rise to new forms of work in the media and also to media work in organizations in other fields. Media work, as defined by Deuze (2007), refers to planning, producing, and marketing media contents, products, services, and brands within media organizations. Media work is not limited to journalistic work but consists also of other activities undertaken by media professionals aimed at advancing the success of media products and services (Malmelin & Villi, 2017). In addition, forms of media work are also emerging in other industries, for example, in various organizations who aim for professional, media-like content production as a part of their communication strategy, or communications agencies who produce communication and marketing content for their customers. Further, the increasing significance of public social media and the demands for organizational openness and dialogue (e.g., Albu & Flyverbom, 2016) require media skills from nearly all employees. For this issue, we invite theoretical and empirical papers that study the changing nature of media work as well as the new institutional environments for media work from different perspectives, including but not limited to: New professional roles and responsibilities emerging inside the media industry;

Theoretical and conceptual development of media work in the social media era;

Institutional responses to environmental changes in media organizations;

Media work in entrepreneurial media outlets;

Practices of media work in organizations in other fields than the media (e.g., corporate media, public organization media);

Mixing of strategic communications and journalistic work;

Organizational communication approaches to media work, such as internal mediated practices and their functions in organizations.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 9 , Issue 4



Title: Ten Years after the Arab Uprisings: Beyond Media and Liberation



Editor(s): Hanan Badr (Cairo University, Egypt) and Lena-Maria Möller (University of Leipzig, Germany / Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 December 2020

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 April 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The Arab Uprisings in 2011 were an exceptional moment in the MENA region: they shattered stagnation paradigms and introduced dynamism as a lens of analysis, as also proven by the second wave of protests in 2019. Media are crucial in such disruptive and self-reflective processes. Initial research on media and communication and the Arab Uprisings, which quickly subdued, highlighted the role of (social) media and mobilization, attributing to digital media a central role in the public’s empowerment and in the evasion to censorship through the networked public sphere. Scholarship did not only overemphasize the technology; it reconstructed the Arab Uprisings from a predominantly Euro- and US-centric perspective (i.e. democratization, security concerns and economic consequences). It is important to understand how media and journalism are relevant to the post-Arab Spring transformation phase. This thematic issue invites scholars to scrutinize media within their societal, cultural and political interdependencies, beyond techno-deterministic logics, retracing interactions and negotiation processes between media, society and politics. It will develop our understanding on how media engaged with, reconsidered and re-articulated voices amid a turbulent transformation beyond the mobilization moment. Revisiting media and the Arab Uprisings after ten years encourages critical-reflective articles and interdisciplinary modes of analysis that pay attention to both old and new media. Lines of inquiry can include, but are not limited to: - Patterns of agency of professional and non-professional actors;

- Negotiation processes during transformation in media policies;

- Reconstruction of media discourses;

- Representation, framing and articulation of actors, shifts in structures in the media;

- Subtle dynamics of power struggles in hybrid media systems;

- Actors’ media use for defiance, coping, resistance or survival. Contributions from the Global South are particularly welcome, to develop theorizing from (and not about) the Global South. This not only to expand the analysis beyond the Global North but also to reconstruct the disruptions while challenging normative models of media systems (Gumede, 2020).

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ).



Open Access: Accepted papers will be granted Open Access and Editing fees after the peer-review and pending final budgetary approval by the Arab–German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (agya.info).



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Volume 10 , Issue 1



Title: Social Media for Social and Corporate Entrepreneurship



Editor(s): Seifedine Kadry (Beirut Arab University, Lebanon), Yu-Dong Zhang (University of Leicester, UK) and Shuai Li (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The entrepreneurship process is corporate or social and it can be categorized depending upon the chosen business specification. Corporate entrepreneurship deals with the transformation of new business ideas into a successful venture by promoting an overall product with enhanced profit in a competitive environment. Whereas social entrepreneurship is a rapidly growing environment which measures the business performance based on the influence of the business in society. Undoubtedly, social entrepreneurs are persons who involve themselves in solving product-based issues and problems and generate revenue accordingly. Social media based applications are increasing rapidly and providing new business possibilities and identifying entrepreneurial opportunities; the number of people using various social media applications is rapidly increasing day by day. This heterogeneous medium provides information based on the trending changes happening in the real-time environment; it is then used to construct strategies to improve business growth and enhances brand development. Positive social media engagement enriches the trust in the company, solves social or environmental complications, and manages any uncontrollable business situations. Social entrepreneurs play an important role in overcoming the complications by formulating innovative plans. Thus, regardless of the size of the businesses, social media is being utilized for marketing products and services. With the help of social media, entrepreneurs can also come up with new ideas and concepts for delivering products and services. To establish a strong bond with the customers, entrepreneurs use social media platforms to share information about their businesses. Since social entrepreneurship is an intangible and non-quantifiable process, it has many limitations related to performance measurements. On the other hand, corporate entrepreneurship measures tangible performances based on business growth, customer involvement, market value, etc. This thematic issue invites researchers to contribute their research findings related to the social media usage in social and corporate entrepreneurship.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 1



Title: Digital Child and Adulthood—Risks, Opportunities, and Challenges



Editor(s): Claudia Riesmeyer (LMU Munich, Germany), Arne Freya Zillich (University of Jena, Germany) and Thorsten Naab (German Youth Institute, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Childhood and adolescence are today characterized by digitalization which becomes apparent at least in three developments: First, children grow up in a world in which the use of digital media is increasingly establishing itself as a cultural practice in families, educational institutions, and among peers. Furthermore, they become the target of media education efforts: Various agents guide children and young people to a responsible and reflective use of media as well as set social standards of media use and practice. Finally, through their actions, both active and passive, children and adolescents leave numerous traces of their own in the digital world. These are not only followed by their family and friends, but also by companies, activists, and researchers. This thematic issue deals with the risks, opportunities, and challenges that digitalization poses for childhood and adolescence. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: Digital environment: What are the characteristics of digital media use by children and adolescents? What role does the family background play (e.g., socio economic status, migration, crisis communication within families)? How does the increasing digitalization affect childrens’ and adolescents’ relations to their peers? How do media availability and media practices differ among children and adolescents in different cultural contexts (within a region and globally)?

Skills: Which factors and processes interlock in a successful self-socialization of competent media use? What are the roles and responsibilities of different actors, such as parents, teachers, siblings, friends, or influencers? What dangers do children and adolescents face online, what opportunities do they acknowledge?

Traces: Are children and adolescents aware of the traces they leave online and how do they deal with them? How does the digital footprint of children change in the course of their childhood and youth? Which digital traces are left by peers and relatives about children and adolescents?

Research ethics: What are the current challenges facing digital child and youth research? How can it collect data in a research-ethically correct way (e.g., questioning parents as a proxy for children)?

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 1



Title: New Narratives for New Consumers: Influencers and the Millennial and Centennial Generations



Editor(s): Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez (Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain), Santiago Tejedor (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) and Inmaculada Berlanga (International University of La Rioja, Spain)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The growth and popularization of the Internet, together with the gradual reduction of the digital divide, have brought about new habits in the use and consumption of media and platforms. These changes, besides generating an ecosystem in continuous ‘mediamorphosis’ (Aguaded & Romero-Rodríguez, 2015), are making new phenomena and narratives appear in the digital sphere. In particular, the younger generations (millennials and centennials), also called ‘digital natives’ (Bennet et al., 2008; Prensky, 2001), have been the protagonists of this new media dynamic, in which the audience is both producer and broadcaster of content through social networks, giving birth to the ‘digital prosumer’ (Ritzer et al., 2012). In this sense, platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, among others, have become collaborative channels with new personalities, away from the mainstream, which has a significant influence on the opinions, customs, habits, and preferences of the new generations (Brown, 2016). It is no secret that specific channels on YouTube, Instagram (ITGV), or Tik Tok have more subscribers than the combined audience of many conventional media (i.e., PewDiePie, 100 MM; Cocomelon, 72,5 MM; 5-Minute Crafts, 64,2 MM). This has been a potent vector of innovation in communication, forcing even the conventional media (newspapers, radio, TV, cinema) to bet on these types of channels and narratives to survive. This thematic issue of Media and Communication invites scholars to examine the changes in narratives that have resulted from the emergence of these digital channels as a function of their impact on the younger generation. It also aims to explore in-depth the contents and languages used by the ‘digital influencers’ in their channels, in the search for the keys to their communication success. Both empirical and theoretical manuscripts; quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches; single-country and comparative research; and historical and contemporary inquiries are welcome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: Profiles and typologies of the channels of the ‘digital influencers’;

Digital channel content and speech analysis (such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok);

Professional routines and models of the ‘digital influencers’;

Use and consumption habits of millennial and centennial generations;

Origins and historical evolution of the ‘digital influencers’;

Levels of media competence of ‘digital influencers’;

Social Media Analysis of ‘digital influencers’ channels.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal’s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio’s Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal’s open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 2



Title: Impact of Social Media on Social Cohesion



Editor(s): Stefan Stieglitz (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) and Björn Ross (University of Edinburgh, Scotland)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: In the 21st century, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and WhatsApp are used by the majority of the population in many countries. Social media enables users to create and share content and to participate in social networking. Mass media have also entered the digital age and play an active role on social media. Within seconds, any content can be circulated among thousands of people. Due to the large amount of information and the variety of data sources, it has become increasingly difficult for citizens to decide about the trustworthiness of social media content. In times of global crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic, climate change, or financial crises, societies are in danger of losing stability and social cohesion. The rise of fake accounts, misinformation, social bots, and hidden attempts of manipulation pose additional challenges for democratic societies. On the other hand, social media can help to foster communication among citizens and reinforce shared feelings of identity (e.g., in Europe). It can also enable citizens to communicate across borders and strengthen shared ideologies. For this thematic issue, we seek articles that contribute to this active area of research. Examples of topics include: Social media as an enabler of, or barrier to, social cohesion;

Transnational social movements on social media;

Cross-border communication on social media;

Participation and representation of minorities in social media—inclusiveness of social media;

Social media as a contributor to social equality or inequality;

Impact of social media misinformation and disinformation on social cohesion;

Impact of hate and abusive speech (e.g., misogyny, racism) on social cohesion;

Crisis communication in social media.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 2



Title: Networks and Organizing Processes in Online Social Media



Editor(s): Seungyoon Lee (Purdue University, USA)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: The potential for social interaction on online social media is immense. It presents unprecedented opportunities and challenges in the organizing processes of various social phenomena such as information exchange, knowledge creation, collective action, and post-disaster resource mobilization. Recent examples show that the phenomena observed on a range of social media platforms sometimes support and sometimes defy the traditional theories of organizing. On one hand, the role of centralized individuals and organizations is still highlighted, and factors such as status, prestige, and geographic co-location continue to explain the organizing processes in online space. On the other hand, online social organizing allows successful mobilization and collaboration without a pre-established structure of coordination. Individuals collaborate toward goals without tangible incentives, across physical and social boundaries, and through improvisation of new ties from previously weak or nonexistent relationships. These observations suggest that there are unique structures of interaction that need to be understood in addition to the characteristics of participants and the channels themselves. This thematic issue solicits studies that examine the structure of networks on social media—e.g., who communicates with whom, who collaborates with whom, who forms groups with whom, and others—in order to provide critical insights into the ways in which social interaction shapes emergent outcomes. The issue welcomes contributions for understanding networked patterns of interaction from small to large scales, and from a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives.



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 2



Title: Media and Migration in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Discourses, Policies and Practices in Times of Crisis



Editor(s): Vasiliki Tsagkroni (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Amanda Alencar (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and Dimitris Skleparis (Newcastle University, UK)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 June 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 October 2021

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Discourses of fear and war-like metaphors around the current coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic have paved the way for the introduction of unprecedented mobility restrictions at the local, national, and global level. During times of crisis, the media are key in contributing to the legitimation of measures and in providing communities access to critical information. Against this background, when it comes to displaced persons, it is important to highlight barriers related to digital accessibility and literacies, as well as associated risks of technology use (e.g., misinformation, privacy issues, and surveillance). These barriers might exacerbate their vulnerabilities and existing condition, as well as render them invisible as a community. They might also transform and challenge the communication and relations with their transnational families. This call for papers invites reflective contributions that bring together digital infrastructures and media through the spectre of migration during the Covid-19 crisis. The connection of media and migration provides a critical lens to think through themes of borders, migrants, integration, governance, and representation associated with this pandemic crisis. Some of the themes this thematic issue is open to consider include: The role of mediated processes and discourses around the immediate and long-term effects of the Covid-19 on migrants;

The role of digital and social media in facilitating solidarity movements towards migrant groups, or conversely, anti-immigrant mobilisations amid the pandemic;

The mediatised consequences of the Covid-19 for migratory movements;

The opportunities and constraints of digital technologies in migrant settlement, integration, and rights protection amid the pandemic;

The role of media and technologies in risk and crisis management;

The opportunities and challenges of using digital technologies to conduct research on migrant populations during a global pandemic;

The impact of media on transnational family relations and communications within the context of limited global mobility.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 3



Title: Enlightening Confusion: How Contradictory Findings Help Mitigate Problematic Trends in Digital Democracies



Editor(s): Cornelia Mothes (Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany) and Jakob Ohme (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2022

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Public discourse in digital democracies is facing growing challenges, with two main trends giving particular cause for concern, but at the same time leading to ongoing debates about their actual severity. A first trend relates to evidence showing that citizens get involved in political debates in a way that is becoming increasingly emotional and irrational. This trend is often related to concepts such as affective polarization, confirmation bias, echo chamber.rs, filter bubbles, cognitive misperception, fake news, incivility or hate speech—all of which pointing into the direction of a gradually evolving post-truth society, which would severely compromise a shared knowledge base and the ability to reach consensus in society. A second trend relates to a concurrently growing share of citizens who often no longer engage with public affairs at all—at least not beyond headlines and teasers—but still feel subjectively well informed. This second trend refers to concepts such as news fatigue, political alienation, news snacking or incidental exposure in high-choice media environments, and is crucially related to the first trend in that it potentially reinforces it by leaving the political stage to the most emotionally involved, less open-minded participants in public discourse. Although many studies have examined these trends, both developments bear a complexity that often makes it difficult for research to reconcile contradictory findings. Yet, these inconsistencies in empirical results are probably the most important parameters not only for advancing our understanding of these developments, but also for finding answers to the question of how such problematic trends could be counteracted, as they may point to essential factors that moderate—and thus potentially mitigate—detrimental developments. This thematic issue therefore invites contributions from a wide range of perspectives (theoretical, methodological, empirical) looking at contradictory patterns and potential moderators in media effects research that may help clarify the overall severity of problematic trends in digital democracies, or suggest solution-based approaches to alleviating such trends. Contributions may address (but are not limited to) the question of how contradictory findings can be: Attributed to user differences (e.g., personality, ideology, user patterns, user interests);

Traced back to content-related differences (e.g., news topics, journalistic quality, news platforms);

Explained by cultural differences (e.g., social/political context, media system, journalistic culture);

Caused by differences in methodological approaches to investigating media effects;

Used for effective interventions (e.g., in the field of constructive journalism, news/media literacy or self-affirmation). Contributions may address (but are not limited to) the question of how contradictory findings can be:

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 3



Title: At the Intersections of Mobile Online and Offline Spaces: Reflections on Methods, Practices, and Ethics



Editor(s): Katja Kaufmann (University of Innsbruck, Austria) and Monika Palmberger (University of Vienna, Austria)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2022

Publication of the Issue:

Information: This thematic issue seeks to advance the methodological scholarship and cross-disciplinary exchange on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their embeddedness in everyday practices across mobile online and offline spaces. ICTs and mobile media have become ubiquitous in the lives of many people, introducing new forms of communication, and affecting experiences of temporality and space and ultimately understandings of sociality and relationships. Mobile media technologies such as smartphones, now commonplace companions in numerous pockets, place users in digital (online) as well as physical (offline) spaces in novel ways, thus opening up new environments of affordances. In everyday life these mobile online and offline spaces are deeply interwoven in manifold ways. Practices, experiences, meanings and expectations are being negotiated across these spaces, while simultaneously bound by the spaces’ respective logics and limitations, leading in turn to new interrelations as well as contradictions. The intersections of online and offline spaces in the use of mobile media technologies have become an inherent aspect of people’s lives—and hence an intriguing new site for social research. The mobile, interrelating, yet not converging, nature of online and offline spaces, however, poses significant method(odolog)ical challenges. Researchers in the field of media and communication and beyond are confronted with such questions as: What are appropriate designs to study (at) these intersections? How can methods do justice to the volatility and fluidity of practices and experiences across online and offline spaces? In what ways can elaborated mixed and multi-method designs capture complexity adequately without the researchers losing sight of the specifics? How can researchers overcome the potential additivity in their methodical approaches and thus acknowledge that intersecting online and offline spaces are more than the sum of their separate parts? And what are the ethical and practical implications for the parties involved?



Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here



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Volume 10 , Issue 3



Title: Journalism, Activism, and Social Media: Exploring the Shifts in Journalistic Roles, Performance and Interconnectedness



Editor(s): Peter Maurer (Trier University, Germany) and Christian Nuernbergk (Trier University, Germany)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2021

Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2022

Publication of the Issue:

Information: Journalists perform in an increasingly networked, yet politically fragmented context. Both conditions may affect the role conception of news professionals, the type of information and the style of reporting they provide to the public as well as their relationship and interaction modes with sources, publics and critics. Social media platforms afford journalists opportunities to voice views in public channels outside their media outlets. Thus, journalists develop individual political profiles and may engage themselves in “interpretive communities” emerging around political events (Zelizer, 1993). In digital spaces, journalists are also ‘influencers’ given their visibility and may serve as hubs and potential amplifiers in online networks. The presence of journalists on platforms such as Twitter allows citizens, sources, activists and pressure groups to engage with them, publicly criticize them and to intrude into the formerly shielded environment of journalists and sources. In this vein, ubiquitous attempts of manipulating or influencing public opinion occur. Likewise, the affordances of social media platforms bring the network structure between journalists and political actors more into the open and provide new opportunities for research into relationships, group dynamics and power. Moreover, journalism now operates in the midst of a confrontation of beliefs and political discourses, epitomized for example in the struggle between populist and ‘mainstream’ parties. In the wake of these political fights, journalists may abandon their observer role and become advocates of a cause. Activists, pressure groups and parties try to hijack journalism for their goals. At the same time, the discourse around the appropriate norms of journalism is intensifying as well. This thematic issue of Media and Communication seeks contributions that examine and explore potential shifts or trends in journalistic beliefs, outputs and interactions given these transformations. We welcome contributions from a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches in the intersection of journalism studies and (digital) political communication.

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system ( here ). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).



Open Access: The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here