Media and Communication

Deadline: September 15, 2024

Editors: Silke Fürst (University of Zurich), Florian Muhle (Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen), and Colin Porlezza (Università della Svizzera italiana)

• Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2024
  
• Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2025
  
• Publication of the Issue: July/September 2025
  

Information:

Digitalization has not only changed the ways journalism is produced, disseminated, used, and financed, but it has also challenged the central position of journalism in the public sphere, making it one communicative form competing for attention and authority among others (Carlson et al., 2021). We now live in a complex media ecosystem where human and algorithmic actors, legacy and alternative media, as well as newer and older media observe, compete, influence, and interact with each other (Fürst & Oehmer, 2021; Reese, 2022). This leads to blurred boundaries, raising questions about the societal function, relevance, and value of journalism, how users discern and experience journalism and its actors, and how journalists distinguish themselves, their practices, and their products from non-journalistic modes of content production (Edgerly & Vraga, 2020; Splendore & Iannelli, 2022).

In his seminal book The Hybrid Media System, Chadwick (2017) moved scholars to understand the changing logics of attention and news production, as well as shifting power dynamics within the public sphere, through the lens of a networked media environment (Russell, 2020). This thematic issue takes up this invitation and aims to bring together theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions which reflect on the role of journalism in hybrid media systems. Single-country studies and comparative research using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches are all welcome. Given the prevailing “presentism” (Hallin et al., 2023) in research on hybrid media systems, we also particularly welcome historical and long-term analyses.

Lines of inquiry can include, but are not limited to:

• Key features and patterns of hybrid media systems and their implications for the role, function, societal importance, and funding of journalism;
  
• Changes in the diffusion of power, journalist-source relationships, and news quality;
  
• Interactions, competition, and attention dynamics between legacy news media and online platforms;
  
• The role of algorithms, (social) bots, and usage data in cross-platform dynamics and news practices;
  
• Changing journalistic norms, role conceptions, and practices, as well as changing actor constellations in hybrid media systems;
  
• International comparisons, historical studies, and long-term analyses of journalism in hybrid media systems;
  
• Trust in news and audience perceptions of journalism in the hybrid media system;
  
• Methodological challenges and approaches to studying journalism in the hybrid media system.
  

Further information: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#Journalism