Problemi dell’informazione (Special Issue)

Deadline: January 31, 2026

Guest editors: Gaia Peruzzi & Raffaele Lombardi

Description

Disability Media Studies is an emerging disciplinary field situated at the intersection of Disability Studies and Media Studies. Its common ground lies in the critique of essentialist conceptions of the concept of disability: the constructivist approach of Disability Studies merges with the critical spirit of Cultural Studies and with theories that emphasise the role of media narratives in the social construction of reality, in order to deconstruct the perception of disability as a purely material issue.

The intersectional orientation of the field, together with its focus on everyday and popular experience - whether physically lived (as emphasised by Disability Studies) or mediated (as examined within Media Studies) - are other elements that strengthen the convergence between the two strands. 

Over the past two decades, Disability Media Studies has thus consolidated a critical and interdisciplinary approach to the study of the relationship between media representations and conditions of disability, helping to challenge traditional deficit-oriented frameworks, i.e. those perspectives that describe disability solely as a lack, deficiency or deviation from a presumed norm of full functionality (Ellcessor, 2016). Such traditional approaches reduce the person with disabilities to their clinical or biological condition, obscuring the social, cultural and political dimensions of the disabling experience. In contrast, this strand of scholarship promotes perspectives grounded in diversity rights and social participation (Ellis et al., 2025; Ellis et al., 2021; Shakespeare, 2018).

In the meantime, the evolution of sensitivities and mentalities, the erosion of the sharp boundaries between presumed normality and disability by new vulnerabilities (neurodivergences, attention disorders, etc.), the spread of inclusion policies, and above all the demographic transformations, which with the ageing of the population have made it clear that frailty and disability are universal and not exceptional conditions, have made the issue a social priority.

Today, Disability Media Studies, far from considering the media as mere channels of representation, investigates how journalistic practices, audiovisual productions, social media and digital platforms contribute to the construction of collective representations and imaginaries and, at the same time, influence inclusion and exclusion policies (Barden, 2018; Peruzzi, Battisti and Lombardi, 2024; Umar et al., 2024;). In particular, with the rise of digital media and participatory platforms, reflection has expanded to the active role of people with disabilities in the production of alternative content and narratives, capable of challenging dominant stereotypes and giving visibility to marginalised experiences (Jones et al., 2021; Baumgartner et al., 2021). Recent research highlights, for instance, how TikTok, YouTube or Instagram become spaces of self-representation and online communities where practices of cultural resistance and forms of digital activism emerge (Ellcessor & Kirkpatrick, 2017; Bitman, 2022). At the same time, it is pointed out that the platforms themselves are crossed by technological and algorithmic accessibility barriers that risk reproducing pre-existing inequalities (Alper, 2021; Holland et al., 2023). Furthermore, the presence of disabled activists and influencers on the Web, while obviously read as an opportunity for popularity of the topic, raises specific questions about the subjectivity-objectivity tension in professional journalism (Battisti, Bruno and Peruzzi, 2025).

In this perspective, Disability Media Studies is today a constantly evolving line of research, attentive to both the criticalities and the opportunities offered by the contemporary media ecosystem, and capable of interweaving cultural, sociological and political analysis of disability in the digital era (Pacheco & Burgess, 2024).

This monographic issue aims to bring together contributions that explore the state of Disabilities Media Studies, also from an international perspective.  We welcome contributions that offer perspectives and methods to analyse how disability shapes media narratives and technologies, as well as how media represent and construct disabled bodies and subjects - and the world that surrounding them (caregivers, institutions and disability policies). Both a theoretical and empirical contributions are invited, provided they offer original insights for advancing reflection within the field.

This issue aims to contribute to a critical debate that refuses to separate the study of media from the cultural and political transformations shaping our societies. Within this framework, disability should be understood not as a marginal category but as a lens through which to reflect on the relationships between media, vulnerability, and social justice.

Below we outline a non-exhaustive set of possible thematic directions, which may also intersect with one another:

1. disability and Critical Media Studies: theoretical and methodological perspectives, approaches, methods of study, intersectionality;

2. frames and representations of the world of disability in information, mainstream journalism and social journalism;

3. frames and representations of the world of disability in mass-media narratives: literature, cinema, radio, theatre, etc.;

4. representations and narrative practices on disability in the platforms and "conversations" of online networks;

5. mainstream and specialist journalism on disability, disability influencers, editorial practices, disability-led media practices;

6. disability and social, institutional and political communication: disability campaigns, representation of people with disabilities and disability in diversity and inclusion policies, advocacy strategies, etc.;

7. disability and visual representations: problems and strategies of visual representation of disabilities, physical and cognitive;

8. disability and accessibility: inclusive communication practices; accessibility technologies and policies; social justice and medial citizenship processes.

Key dates:

• Deadline for abstract submissions: January 31, 2026
  
• Decision by issue editors sent by: February 15, 2026
  
• Full paper submissions: May 30, 2026
  
• First round of reviews completed by: July 20, 2026
  
• Resubmissions of papers: September 20, 2026
  
• Second round of reviews completed by: October 30, 2026
  
• Submission of final manuscripts: December 15, 2026
  

Abstracts (300-500 words plus references) in English or Italian should be submitted at: https://submission.rivisteweb.it/index.php/pdi

Abstracts should be proposed for the section “Saggi”. Please indicate that the proposal is for the special issue edited by Peruzzi and Lombardi in the box “Comments for the editor”.

For further information about the submission process, please contact: gaia.peruzzi@uniroma1.it, r.lombardi5@lumsa.it   

There are no APC (article processing charge) for authors.

About the venue

Established in 1976, Problemi dell’Informazione (PdI) has been the first Italian scientific journal focusing specifically on journalism and communication studies. Since then, PdI has represented a dedicated venue for the development of a vivid debate on these topics, fueled both by academic research and by contributions from professionals. More recently PdI has expanded its aims and scope by broadly considering all forms of communication, also to keep pace with the latest transformations in the field of journalism and of journalism studies. PdI publishes contributions in Italian and English after a rigorous double-blind peer review process.

Principal Editor: Carlo Sorrentino.

Here: https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195 its national and international board.

Problemi dell'Informazione is A-class rated journal by ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems) in Sociology of culture and communication