Nordic Journal of Media Studies, Vol. 7 (2026) 

Deadline: February 1, 2025

Editors:  

• Kirsten Frandsen (Aarhus University): imvkf@cc.au.dk 
  
• Manuel Menke (University of Copenhagen): manuel.menke@hum.ku.dk 
  

Important dates: 

• Deadline for abstracts: 1 February 
  
• Deadline for full submissions: 15 August 
  

Nordic Journal of Media Studies invites contributions to the 2026 issue exploring the relationship between media, communication, and the past, focusing on international as well as Nordic perspectives. The issue aims to delve into the intersection of the uses of the past with media content, discourses, events, practices, and technologies, including but not limited to the mediated communication of the past and collective memory in areas such as politics, journalism, popular culture, film and television, and sports.  

The uses of the past in media play a crucial role in shaping perceptions, identities, and societal values, thereby contributing not only to an understanding of what is of collective importance today, but also what constitutes the foundation for (un)acceptable imaginaries of the future (e.g., Angell & Larsen, 2022; de Saint-Laurent, 2018). Moreover, generative AI produces new videos, texts, and images based on historical training data, giving us an automated reproduction of past media. In recent years, the nexus of media, communication, and the past has gained attention in both societal and academic discourses, most prominently in the wake of populism and its romanticisation of a supposedly pure and secure past (e.g., Menke & Hagedoorn, 2023; Merrill, 2020; Pettersson & Sakki, 2017; Sandford, 2019). Yet, evoking the past does not necessarily have to be a restorative project. Investigating the past and its uses in media might reveal what is considered worth preserving today, which past imaginaries of the future did (not) come to fruition, and how today’s engagement with the achievements and mistakes of the past are used to imagine and legitimise certain paths into the future.   

While the past seems to be omnipresent in politics these days, it is of no less importance in popular culture, fandom, sports, and many other areas in which media, such as films, television series, magazines, games, and so on contribute to people’s meaning-making and enrich the everyday life of individuals and communities coming together on- and offline (Armbruster, 2016; Garde-Hansen, 2009; Humphreys, 2020). Moreover, the past in media extends beyond mere representation. It is used to compose cultural narratives, it contributes to identity formation, and it influences social cohesion. Media serve as powerful mediators between the past, the present, and the future, thereby taking a significant position in whose pasts get (no) recognition at present and (no) consideration for the future (e.g., Gutman & Wüstenberg, 2022; Menke & Kalinina, 2019; Molden, 2016). Investigating these dynamics allows for a nuanced exploration of how media contribute to the construction of shared pasts and the negotiation of diverse cultural identities. The past is not only being renegotiated and contested in the Nordic context but also everywhere else, where progressive cultural and societal ambitions are intertwined with both rich historical traditions and conflicts rooted in colonial pasts (e.g., Angell & Larsen, 2022; Guttormsen & Swensen, 2016). Consequently, examining how media contribute to the construction, preservation, reinterpretation, or even revision of narratives about the past becomes imperative to understanding where regions, nations, and communities might be heading. 

• Possible topics include, but are not limited to: 
  
• uses of the past in political and activist communication 
  
• the past and collective identity in social movements 
  
• mediated memory work of marginalised communities 
  
• representations of the past in journalism, legacy media, and alternative media 
  
• citizen engagement in mediated memory discourses 
  
• playful media engagements with the past 
  
• cultural and national identities, heritage culture and sites, and the media 
  
• representations of the past in film and television series 
  
• legacy and heritage in sports communication and media events 
  
• digital memory work during crises 
  
• emotion, affect, and sentiments towards mediated pasts 
  
• visual constructions of the past 
  
• populism and nostalgia in social media communication 
  
• polarisation and the defence of past privileges 
  
• disinformation and the manipulation of memory and history 
  
• memory and the past in times of artificial intelligence 

References 

Angell, S. I., & Larsen, E. (2022). Introduction: Reimagining the Nordic pasts. Scandinavian Journal of History, 47(5), 589–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2022.2051599 

Armbruster, S. (2016). Watching nostalgia: An analysis of nostalgic television fiction and its reception (Vol. 48). transcript. 

de Saint-Laurent, C. (2018). Thinking through time: From collective memories to collective futures. In C. De Saint-Laurent, S. Obradović, & K. R. Carriere (Eds.), Imagining collective futures (pp. 59–81). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76051-3_4 

Garde-Hansen, J. (2009). MyMemories? Personal digital archive fever and Facebook. In J. Garde-Hansen, A. Hoskins, & A. Reading (Eds.), Save as... Digital memories (pp. 135–150). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230239418_8 

Gutman, Y., & Wüstenberg, J. (2022). Challenging the meaning of the past from below: A typology for comparative research on memory activists. Memory Studies, 15(5), 1070–1086. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980211044696 

Guttormsen, T. S., & Swensen, G. (2016). Heritage, democracy and the public: Nordic approaches. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315586670 

Humphreys, L. (2020). Birthdays, anniversaries, and temporalities: Or how the past is represented as relevant through on-this-date media. New Media & Society, 22(9), 1663–1679. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820914874 

Menke, M., & Hagedoorn, B. (Eds.). (2023). Digital memory and populism [Special section]. International Journal of Communication, 17. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/issue/view/19#more4 

Menke, M., & Kalinina, E. (2019). Reclaiming identity: GDR lifeworld memories in digital public spheres. In N. Maurantonio, & D. W. Park (Eds.), Communicating memory & history (pp. 243–261). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b14522 

Merrill, S. (2020). Sweden then vs. Sweden now: The memetic normalisation of far-right nostalgia. First Monday, 25(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i6.10552 

Molden, B. (2016). Resistant pasts versus mnemonic hegemony: On the power relations of collective memory. Memory Studies, 9(2), 125–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698015596014 

Pettersson, K., & Sakki, I. (2017). Pray for the fatherland! Discursive and digital strategies at play in nationalist political blogging. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 14(3), 315–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2017.1290177  

Sandford, R. (2019). Thinking with heritage: Past and present in lived futures. Futures, 111, 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.06.004 

Procedure  

Those with an interest in contributing should write an abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is described. The abstract should contain the preliminary title and five keywords. How the article fits with the overall description of the issue should be mentioned.   

Send your abstract to both editors by 1 February at the latest 

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (6,000–8,000 words) will be notified by e-mail after the abstracts have been assessed by the editors. All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers. All submissions are submitted to Similarity Check – a Crossref service utilising iThenticate text comparison software to detect text-recycling or self-plagiarism. 

Visit Crossref to learn more about Similarity Check: https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/ 

After the initial submission and review process, manuscripts that are accepted for publication must adhere to our guidelines upon final manuscript delivery. You may choose to use our templates to assist you in correctly formatting your manuscript. 

Read the instructions for authors and download a manuscript template here: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/publish-with-nordicom/instructions-authors

About Nordic Journal of Media Studies 

Nordic Journal of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed international publication dedicated to media research. The journal is a meeting place for Nordic, European, and global perspectives on media studies. It is a thematic digital-only journal published once a year. The editors stress the importance of innovative and interdisciplinary research, and welcome contributions on both contemporary developments and historical topics.  

Read the aims & scope of NJMS: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/nordic-journal-media-studies  

About the publisher 

Nordicom is a centre for Nordic media research at the University of Gothenburg, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordicom publishes all works under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which allows for non-commercial, non-derivative types of reuse and sharing with proper attribution. All works are published Open Access and are available to read free of charge and without requirement for registration. There are no article processing charges for authors, and authors retain copyright.  

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