Comunicazioni Sociali: Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies (special issue)

Deadline: December 10, 2024

Edited by Alice Cati, Anna Chiara Sabatino, Max Schleser, and Shuai Li

Since the advent of small-gauge film devices, alternative audiovisual forms have adopted original and creative approaches to documenting personal experiences. Among these, amateur audiovisual films have often been characterized by self-referential and subjective expressions, whether shaped as “home movies” or individualistic autobiographical or self-portrayal declinations. From this perspective, the question is no longer how self-representational practices such as mobile and first-person filmmaking are used to express personal unique perspectives and styles, but rather what forms of self-narrative representation emerge within the exploration of novel methods and alternative renderings of the Self in audiovisual and digital media.

Within a mediascape where social media platforms have catalyzed an unprecedented development of self-narrative forms through digital creative practices, nearly anyone can produce and share self-representations, acting as captures and stories of mobile lives.

Since the first mobile films emerged roughly two decades ago, audiovisual storytelling has seen remarkable growth in multiple configurations, from videodiaries and travelogues to first-person formats, ranging from cinema to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, as well as news broadcasting and citizen digital journalism. Such medial expansion has led to new formats and narrative structures, establishing smartphone filmmaking and digital storytelling as a distinct creative ecology that includes both professional and amateur domains. As these platforms continue to evolve, they offer new opportunities for both creators and audiences to engage with content in innovative ways. One key aspect of this evolution is the shift towards brevity and immediacy in storytelling. The rise of short-form video formats has further transformed personal storytelling by encouraging creators to condense their narratives into more concise and immediate forms. Additionally, the role of algorithms in addressing and promoting content has a relevant impact on the visibility of self-narrative productions, determining which stories reach broader audiences and go viral. Thus, mobile storytelling occupies a liminal space, one that has given rise to new classifications and identities for content creators, including the “prosumer”, “pro-am”, and “pro-d-user” categories.

In parallel, the concept of the amateur—deriving from the Latin term for “lover,” meaning one who creates out of passion rather than financial necessity—has evolved as well in the digital era, where the always online and highly interconnected environment offers new avenues for individuals and communities to communicate and present themselves to virtual audiences anywhere at any time. In this perspective, digital storytelling and mobile filmmaking as creative practices become both autonomous expressive tools for self-narratives and vehicles for collective engagement, as well as catalysts for activism, addressing issues like inequality and environmental and social crises. In the current digital landscape, creators can construct an authentic self-image that resonates closely with their intended audience. Nevertheless, far from being exclusively online, such narrative modes also encompass alternative applications, including therapeutic uses of mobile devices within participatory research designs and peculiar audiovisual fields.

From private memoirs to always-active social media profiles, from domestic memory capturing to the dialogic and participatory dispositives of smartphone filmmaking, how can audiovisual languages, tools and practices be declined today in their personal and collective performances? How traditional self-representative configurations such as autobiography and self-portrait evolve within their audiovisual upgrades? What are the varied facets that the self-narratives take on in the age of Big Data? What models of self-reflexive discourse and self-representation are defined as marginal or dominant in the contemporary mediascape? How do amateurism and professionalism interact with self-storytelling, which frequently occurs at the crossroads between private and public, between personal and corporate logic (e. g., influencer marketing)?

This issue of Comunicazioni Sociali invites scholars to propose reflections on the disciplinary, theoretical, and historical intersections of amateur, personal, mobile storytelling and smartphone filmmaking. In particular, the issue aims to solicit contributions that seek to explore how digital storytelling, mobile and smartphone filmmaking can be understood today in both personal and collective forms. We particularly encourage proposals that emphasize self-representation, mobile autobiographies, first-person filmmaking, amateur digital configurations and transformative dimensions within these practices.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The historical development and creative practices of digital storytelling, mobile filmmaking and smartphone filmmaking;
  
• Audiovisual forms and genres of self-mediatization (e.g. self-portrait, video diaries, travelogues, Instagram stories, TikTok videos);
  
• Therapeutic use of digital devices and mobile self-representational practice within medical and clinical contexts;
  
• Digital identity construction and online presence configurations;
  
• Alternative story forms, formats and counter-cultural expressions;
  
• Amateur creative contributions and expressions, both personal and collective;
  
• The impact of short-form video formats on how individuals construct and share personal narratives;
  
• The role of algorithms in shaping the visibility, reach, and influence of audiovisual self-representations. 

Submission details

Please send your abstract and a short biographical note by December 10, 2024, filling out the following form: https://www.vpjournals.it/index.php/comunicazionisociali/about/submissions   

Abstracts should be 300 to 400 words long (in English). All submissions should include 5 keywords, the name of the author(s), the institution's affiliation, contact details, and a short bio for each author.

Authors will be notified of proposal acceptance by December 20, 2024.

If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article in English by May 15, 2024

Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

The articles must not exceed 5,000/6,000 words in English (including references)

For editorial guidelines, please refer to the section “Guide for the authors” on the Comunicazioni Sociali website: http://comunicazionisociali.vitaepensiero.com

Contributions will be submitted through a double-blind peer review process.

Issue 2/2025 of Comunicazioni Sociali will be published in September 2025 and available in open access on the journal's website.