Abstracts Submission

The following issues are currently accepting abstract submissions:

Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies

Academic Editors: Silke Fürst (University of Zurich), Johannes Breuer (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Erik Koenen (University of Bremen), Dimitri Prandner (Johannes Kepler University of Linz), Christian Schwarzenegger (University of Bremen), and Christian Strippel (Weizenbaum Institute)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2026
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2026

Many scholars and initiatives in communication and media research have called for a “cultural shift” in our discipline toward more open, reproducible, and replicable research practices and better access to infrastructures and shared research resources (e.g., Bowman & Spence, 2020; Dienlin et al., 2021; Haim & Puschmann, 2023). However, when we look at the main forums in our field, we still see a lack of opportunities to share information on and experiences with such infrastructures and resources. Typically, this information is limited to brief references in articles, documentation scattered across the web, and informal exchanges among colleagues. A growing, but still limited number of journals have started to provide dedicated space for in-depth presentations or discussions of tools, datasets, or other resources (e.g., Araujo et al., 2022; Haim et al., 2023; Musi et al., 2024; Ohme, 2023; Schoch & Chan, 2023; Shaw et al., 2021; Strippel et al., 2023).

This thematic issue aims to contribute to these efforts by providing a forum for debate and exchange on open research infrastructures for communication and media research, with a focus on non-commercial resources following open science principles. Hence, we particularly welcome submissions which:

Present, compare, or evaluate datasets, databases, and archives that provide research material and instruments for data analysis or data collection in the field of communication and media research;
Present, compare, or evaluate research software, models (e.g., classifiers), training data, dictionaries, or other resources, taking into account the specific requirements in the field of communication and media research;
Assess the extent to which open research infrastructures and resources are created and (re)used in communication and media research, discuss the factors that enable or constrain their adoption, and provide suggestions for ways forward;
Discuss the implications of creating, maintaining, and using reusable research data, archives, and tools for both quantitative and qualitative research practices in communication and media studies with regard to research inequalities between the Global North and the Global South or the English language hegemony (e.g., Dutta et al., 2021; Humphreys et al., 2021).

References

Araujo, T., Ausloos, J., van Atteveldt, W., Loecherbach, F., Moeller, J., Ohme, J., Trilling, D., van de Velde, B., de Vreese, C., & Welbers, K. (2022). OSD2F: An open-source data donation framework. Computational Communication Research, 4(2), 372–387. https://doi.org/10.5117/ccr2022.2.001.arau

Bowman, N. D., & Spence, P. R. (2020). Challenges and best practices associated with sharing research materials and research data for communication scholars. Communication Studies, 71(4), 708–716. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2020.1799488

Dienlin, T., Johannes, N., Bowman, N. D., Masur, P. K., Engesser, S., Kümpel, A. S., Lukito, J., Bier, L. M., Zhang, R., Johnson, B. K., Huskey, R., Schneider, F. M., Breuer, J., Parry, D. A., Vermeulen, I., Fisher, J. T., Banks, J., Weber, R., Ellis, D. A., . . . de Vreese, C. (2021). An agenda for open science in communication. Journal of Communication, 71(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz052

Dutta, M., Ramasubramanian, S., Barrett, M., Elers, C., Sarwatay, D., Raghunath, P., Kaur, S., Dutta, D., Jayan, P., Rahman, M., Tallam, E., Roy, S., Falnikar, A., Johnson, G. M., Mandal, I., Dutta, U., Basnyat, I., Soriano, C., Pavarala, V., . . . Zapata, D. (2021). Decolonizing open science: Southern interventions. Journal of Communication, 71(5), 803–826. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab027

Haim, M., Leiner, D., & Hase, V. (2023). Integrating data donations in online surveys. Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft, 71(1/2), 130–137. https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2023-1-2-130

Haim, M., & Puschmann, C. (2023). Opening up data, tools, and practices: Collaborating with the future. Digital Journalism, 11(2), 247–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2174894

Humphreys, L., Lewis, N. A., Jr., Sender, K., & Won, A. S. (2021). Integrating qualitative methods and open science: Five principles for more trustworthy research. Journal of Communication, 71(5), 855–874. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab026

Musi, E., Garcia Aguilar, E. E., & Federico, L. (2024). Botlitica: A generative AI-based tool to assist journalists in navigating political propaganda campaigns. Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS), 24(1), 161–169. https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2024.01.4270

Ohme, J. (2023). Research software reviews in mobile media & communication studies. Sage. https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/mmc/Research%20Software%20Reviews%20in%20Mobile%20Media_final-1646042282.pdf

Schoch, D., & Chan, C.-H. (2023). Software presentation: Rtoot: Collecting and analyzing Mastodon data. Mobile Media & Communication, 11(3), 575–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579231176678

Shaw, A., Scharkow, M., & Wang, Z. J. (2021). Opening a conversation on open communication research. Journal of Communication, 71(5), 677–685. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab033

Strippel, C., Breuer, J., Fürst, S., Koenen, E., Prandner, D., & Schwarzenegger, C. (2023). Editorial: Data, archives, and tools—Introducing new publication formats on infrastructures and resources for communication and media research. Publizistik, 68(2/3), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7

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.

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Gender Politics and Moral Norms Across Media

Academic Editors: Tonny Krijnen (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Zhen Ye (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Qian Huang (University of Groningen)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2026
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2026

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing body of research focused on identity politics, public shaming, and social outrage in the contemporary media landscape. Morality is often at the core of these debates. At times, societies are gripped by moral panics (Cohen, 1972/2011) and attribute the cause of such feelings of panic to certain media products such as TV dramas, reality TV, or advertising (Critcher, 2006; Guo, 2017). Yet, evidence that these media products contribute to audiences’ moral imagination and reflection in a positive sense increases (Bilandzic et al., 2017; Krijnen, 2009, 2011; Krijnen & Tan, 2009; Krijnen & Verboord, 2011, 2016). On social media platforms, the entanglement of morality with actions of gender-based harassment, status-seeking, and intergroup conflicts (Huang, 2021; Marwick, 2021) always dominates public attention. On the one hand, the existing moral norms and standards are often used to legitimize individual online practices and even to mobilize collective actions; on the other hand, the state and market actors draw on moral norms to regulate and moderate media content under the name of protecting public interests. This thematic issue aims to explore the historical trajectory and continuity of the vital role of media in shaping social dynamics and moral norms, particularly through the lens of gender, from a global perspective.

We welcome contributions that empirically and theoretically engage with the topic of gender, media, and morality, and encourage contributors to reflect on the topic with its intersections of class, race, geopolitics, etc. For example, and not limited to:

In the process of formation and mobilization of moral norms, what roles do media play?
How can we critically study, analyze, and compare the complex moralized rhetoric across media?
What are the political and social consequences when the moralized rhetoric is used to target specific social groups (i.e. women and LGBTQ communities)?
What kinds of power dynamics between individuals, social institutions, market actors, and nation-states are reflected in the construction of moral norms?

References

Bilandzic, H., Hastall, M. R., & Sukalla, F. (2017). The morality of television genres: Norm violations and their narrative context in four popular genres of serial fiction. Journal of Media Ethics, 32(2), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2017.1294488

Cohen, S. (2011). Folk devils and moral panics. Routledge. (Original work published year 1972)

Critcher, C. (2006). Critical readings: Moral panics and the media. Open University Press.

Guo, S. (2017). When dating shows encounter state censors: A case study of If You Are the One. Media, Culture & Society, 39(4), 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716648492

Huang, Q. (2021). The mediated and mediatised justice-seeking: Chinese digital vigilantism from 2006 to 2018. Internet Histories, 5(3/4), 304–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2021.1919965

Krijnen, T. (2009). Imagining moral citizenship: Gendered politics in television discourses. In B. Cammaerts, S. Van Bauwel, & I. Garcia-Blanco (Eds.), Moral agoras: Democracy, diversity and Communication (pp. 115–133). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Krijnen, T. (2011). Engaging the moral imagination by watching television: Different modes of moral reflection. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 8(2), 52–73. https://www.participations.org/08-02-04-krijnen.pdf

Krijnen, T., & Tan, E. S. H. (2009). Reality TV as a moral laboratory: A dramaturgical analysis of The Golden Cage. Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 39(4), 449–472. https://doi.org/10.1515/COMM.2009.027

Krijnen, T., & Verboord, M. (2011). De televisie als morele oefenruimte. Een kwantitatieve exploratie van morele reflectie naar aanleiding van televisieverhalen. Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap, 39 (2), 57–76. https://doi.org/10.5117/2011.039.002.057

Krijnen, T., & Verboord, M. (2016). The moral value of TV genres: The moral reception of segmented TV audiences. The Social Science Journal, 53(4), 417–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2016.04.004

Marwick, A. E. (2021). Morally motivated networked harassment as normative reinforcement. Social Media+ Society, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211021378

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