Abstracts Submission

Digitalization and societal transformations have reshaped the relations between science, politics, media, and publics. Their relations have become increasingly dynamic, driven by the emergence of technological innovations such as social media and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as by shifting policy and societal expectations, including growing demands for universities’ accountability and for the practical relevance of research (Fürst et al., 2022; Weingart, 2022). Although digitalization has changed and diversified the ways in which publics encounter information about science, news media continue to be important sources of information (Mede et al., 2025). In parallel, whereas science journalism has faced cuts in staff and resources, university communication and public relations have expanded, and the range of actors involved in science communication has widened (Volk et al., 2025). Scientific organizations and scientists increasingly use social media platforms to communicate about science and engage with various publics and stakeholders but often fall short of realizing their full potential for participation and dialogue (Guenther et al., 2023; Sörensen et al., 2023). Meanwhile, the use of AI affects not only the production and communication of scientific knowledge but also how citizens search for and use science-related information (Kessler et al., 2025).

Societal crises—such as climate change, pandemics, and geopolitical conflicts—further intensify those dynamics by challenging established boundaries between scientists, activists, and policymakers (Post & Bienzeisler, 2024), amplifying the public visibility of science and scientists (Joubert et al., 2022), and raising questions about the quality of science communication and public trust in science (Schröder & Guenther, 2025). Digitalization and societal challenges have also transformed how science is conducted, namely by fostering participatory and transformative research while simultaneously fueling the mediatization of science (Wagenknecht et al., 2021; Weingart, 2022).

Against that background, we invite empirical, theoretical, historical, and methodological contributions that analyze the nexus of science, politics, media, and publics—at individual, organizational, and/or societal levels—and that advance our understanding of how digitalization, societal transformations, and crises catalyze changes in those interrelations.

We welcome perspectives and research foci including but not limited to:

• Public perceptions of, engagement with, and trust in science;
• The politicization of science and the scientification/epistemization of politics;
• Media representations of scientific expertise, uncertainty, and contested knowledge, as well as changes brought about by AI;
• The effects of public discourses, visibility, and reputation-seeking on universities, scientists, and scientific knowledge production (e.g., the mediatization of science);
• Societal crises and their impact on science–politics–media–audience relations;
• The role of transdisciplinary and transformative research, including citizen science and participatory approaches.

References

Fürst, S., Volk, S. C., Schäfer, M. S., Vogler, D., & Sörensen, I. (2022). Assessing changes in the public communication of higher education institutions: A survey of leaders of Swiss universities and colleges. Studies in Communication Sciences, 22(3), 515–534. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2022.03.3489

Guenther, L., Wilhelm, C., Oschatz, C., & Brück, J. (2023). Science communication on Twitter: Measuring indicators of engagement and their links to user interaction in communication scholars’ Tweet content. Public Understanding of Science, 32(7), 860–869. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625231166552

Joubert, M., Guenther, L., & Rademan, L. (2022). Expert voices in South African mass media during the Covid-19 pandemic. South African Journal of Science, 118(5/6), Article 12480. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2022/12480

Kessler, S. H., Mahl, D., Schäfer, M. S., & Volk, S. C. (2025). Science communication in the age of Artificial Intelligence: Editorial. Journal of Science Communication, 24(2), Article E. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.24020501

Mede, N. G., Cologna, V., Berger, S., Besley, J. C., Brick, C., Joubert, M., Maibach, E. W., Mihelj, S., Oreskes, N., Schäfer, M. S., van der Linden, S., Aziz, N. I. A., Abdulsalam, S., Shamsi, N. A., Aczel, B., Adinugroho, I., Alabrese, E., Aldoh, A., Alfano, M., . . . Zwaan, R. A. (2025). Public communication about science in 68 countries: Global evidence on how people encounter and engage with information about science. Science Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470251376615

Post, S., & Bienzeisler, N. (2024). The honest broker versus the epistocrat: Attenuating distrust in science by disentangling science from politics. Political Communication, 41(5), 763–785. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2024.2317274

Schröder, J. T., & Guenther, L. (2025). Mediating trust in content about science: Assessing trust cues in digital media environments. Public Understanding of Science, 34(8), 1046–1065. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625251337709

Sörensen, I., Fürst, S., Vogler, D., & Schäfer, M. S. (2023). Higher education institutions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: Comparing Swiss universities’ social media communication. Media and Communication, 11(1), 264–277. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i1.6069

Volk, S. C., Vogler, D., Fürst, S., & Schäfer, M. S. (2025). The plurivocal university: Typologizing the diverse voices of a research university on social media. Public Understanding of Science, 34(3), 270–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625241268700

Wagenknecht, K., Woods, T., Nold, C., Rüfenacht, S., Voigt-Heucke, S., Caplan, A., Hecker, S., & Vohland, K. (2021). A question of dialogue? Reflections on how citizen science can enhance communication between science and society. Journal of Science Communication, 20(03), Article A13. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.20030213

Weingart, P. (2022). Trust or attention? Medialization of science revisited. Public Understanding of Science, 31(3), 288–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625211070888

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).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

A study of 250,000 adults in over 50 countries carried out for the Financial Times indicated that social media usage has been declining since 2022. The rise of AI and algorithmically curated timelines has reduced the role of the active user as “produser.” Professionalised user-generated content, influencer, and self-branding culture increasingly question the social nature of social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

From a news and journalism perspective, a 2026 Reuters Institute report indicated that publishers will focus more on social media platforms for the diffusion of novel content types known as social media journalism (Degen et al., 2024; Hendrickx & Opgenhaffen, 2024). Legacy corporations become increasingly dependent on social media platforms as third-party platforms in fulfilling their crucial role as information bearers (Ekstrom and Westlund, 2019; Salamon et al., 2026).

With recent Digital News Reports stressing that general usage of and trust in news is declining and citizens appearing to slowly turn their backs on social media platforms, how can (social media) journalism thrive? And how do publishers account for the growing competition from news influencers and AI-generated content? This thematic issue invites scholars to critically reflect on the future of social media journalism in an increasingly fragmented, digitised, and AI-steered (social) media environment. We explicitly welcome both empirical and conceptual contributions that foster a better understanding of the changing role of social media platforms in a fast-evolving news and information landscape. Ideally, these lead to in-depth scholarly discussions on how social media platforms can, must, and/or should facilitate news, information, and journalism, and how they continue to develop. Comparative studies that look beyond the Global North are particularly welcomed.

References

Burn-Murdoch, J. (2025, October 2). Have we passed peak social media? The Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/a0724dd9-0346-4df3-80f5-d6572c93a863 

Degen, M., Olgemöller, M., & Zabel, C. (2024). Quality journalism in social media: What we know and where we need to dig deeper. Journalism Studies, 25(4), 399–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2024.2314204

Ekström, M., & Westlund, O. (2019). The dislocation of news journalism: A conceptual framework for the study of epistemologies of digital journalism. Media and Communication, 7(1), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i1.1763 

Hendrickx, J., & Opgenhaffen, M. (2024). Introduction: Understanding social media journalism. Journalism Studies, 25(9), 919–930. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2024.2368861

Salamon, E., Bélair-Gagnon, V., & Crawford, M. (2026). Journalism and social media in creator economies: Evolving structures and labor. New Media & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251407336

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).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.

This thematic issue explores the complex dynamics of trust and institutional legitimacy within “high-trust” or “high-control” societies as environments often characterized by strong state governance, developmental agendas, or regulated media ecosystems. While much of the current literature on misinformation focuses on Western liberal democracies facing institutional decay, this call shifts the lens toward contexts where public, community, and government organizations still maintain a central role in the social fabric yet face unprecedented challenges from cross-border information disorder.

We seek to understand how these institutions (specifically public agencies, health authorities, and community-led organizations) navigate the tension between maintaining social stability and addressing the viral nature of rumors, misinformation, and disinformation. By narrowing our focus to the public and civic spheres, we move away from broad corporate reputation management to examine how “communicative legitimacy” is built when the state is both the primary source of information and the main target of organized disinformation.

To ensure a cohesive scholarly conversation, we invite contributions centered on the following four pillars:

• Crisis and Health Communication: How public health authorities manage rumors and disinformation in environments where official narratives are traditionally dominant.
• State-Citizen Trust and Digital Governance: The impact of “paternalistic” communication styles on public resilience and the ethical boundaries of state-led fact-checking.
• Public Diplomacy and Nation Branding: How information disorder from external actors targets the institutional credibility of developmental states and their international standing.
• Influence and Platforms: The role of local influencers and “digital intermediaries” in either amplifying or mitigating distrust toward public institutions.

Methodologically, we encourage a diverse range of approaches, from computational discourse analysis and digital forensics to ethnographic interviews and comparative surveys, that provide empirical evidence on how trust is repaired when the “traditional” institutional contract is under fire.

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).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.