[Commlist] Call for papers – Comunicazione Politica n. 3/2021 – Covid crisis and political communication

Call for papers – Comunicazione Politica n. 3/2021 – Covid crisis and 
political communication

Editors: Guido Legnante (Università degli Studi di Pavia) and  Sergio 
Splendore (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Since the first months of 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has developed 
globally, generating consequences and reactions in various aspects of 
social life. One of the most specific and characterizing features of 
this crisis lies in the coexistence and interconnection of multiple 
elements of change in (so far) seemingly distant fields. The crisis 
immediately turned out to be “hyperconnected”, due to its genesis, 
geography, dynamics, institutions, impact, perspectives, communication, 
information, protagonists, as well as the centrality of the digital 
infrastructure that innervates communication and activities in the 
contemporary world.

In its most directly political aspects, the crisis has acquired great 
media visibility and has brought to the fore the issue of the connection 
between scientific and political communication. The stress to which 
healthcare institutions have been subjected has led to unprecedented 
responses from government institutions at different levels, in an 
attempt to reconcile the tackling of pandemic emergencies, the 
subsequent economic crisis and the reactions of public opinion. The 
emergency has also highlighted the role of “fake news” in shaping the 
public opinion and in affecting individual behavior and the progressive 
choices of decision makers. As scholars of political communication well 
know, the crowding of information and narratives in a hybrid and 
high-choice communicative environment constitutes a challenge for the 
functioning of democracies. This generates research questions about 
topics such as information disorders, the possible segmentation of the 
public into “echo chambers”, and the ways in which they impact the 
quality and formation of
public opinion. These dynamics further intersect with the unprecedented 
visibility of science and the urgency of policy making in light of the 
political and economic repercussions of the pandemic on individual 
well-being, sociality, and values.

This monographic issue of ComPol intends to highlight the political 
communication mechanisms that have been contributing to shaping the 
development and outcomes of this crisis. We therefore encourage the 
submission of contributions that effectively combine a solid theoretical 
approach to research questions, an appropriate methodological approach 
to the collection of empirical materials, and an accurate data analysis. 
In order to try to overcome the idiosyncratic explanations of 
intrinsically complex phenomena, articles of a comparative nature and 
more broadly a comparative perspective are also strongly encouraged.

We have identified four thematic areas of particular interest: due to 
their interconnected nature, they could give rise to proposals that span 
across multiple areas.

The first is the area of decision-making, primarily involving the 
governments and institutions that have had to face the challenges of the 
pandemic. This area may explore the role of political communication by 
national governments, and the way in which they have interacted more or 
less closely - and more or less controversially - with local governments 
and supranational institutions. Further points of interest are the 
different geographies and timing of the contagion, as well as government 
responses and their consequences intersected with the characteristics of 
their political systems. Consider for example the nature of the regime 
(for instance, the Chinese dictatorship); the presence of populist 
governments (such as, among the others, in Brazil, USA, Hungary); 
political culture in terms of a country’s readiness to track and control 
citizens’ behavior (e.g., in Asia, South Korea and Japan, or, in Europe, 
Great Britain and Sweden); and the peculiar dynamics in the interactions 
of majorities and oppositions. In short, a composite framework and a 
field of comparative research on how various government institutions 
have communicated the - and during the - crisis: states, regions, 
executives, oppositions, parliaments, healthcare institutions, parties.

A second thematic area is related to science and its relationship with 
debate and political decisions. The COVID-19 crisis highlighted several 
science-related issues worth investigating: first, a crisis in the 
credibility of science and the questioning of the role of expert 
mediators, as already observed in
the debates on climate change and vaccines. Second, the emergence of old 
and new conspiracy theories and the spread of fake news and 
disinformation concerning the origins and management of the pandemic. 
Third, partially as a consequence of the first two phenomena, the 
problematic dynamics of science communication and its translation into 
more widespread communication models.

A third thematic area concerns media and their crucial role as mediators 
between political decisions and the formation of public opinion. Some of 
the most interesting aspects of this area (and in clear relation to the 
previous points as well as to the next one) are the question of 
competition vs. consensus in the formation of dominant frames (e.g. in 
connection with political competition) and the politicization and 
popularization of influential scientist figures.

A fourth area of research concerns citizens and their relationship with 
the aspects listed above. In order to understand the development of 
their attitudes and behaviors, we can turn to the interaction between 
citizens’ characteristics and the three elements mentioned above: from 
trust in political actors and science, to the use of and trust in the 
media, to the modality of formation and expression of opinions and the 
consequent behavioral choices. It is also important to consider that 
these dynamics unfolded in a somewhat new context of technological 
“hyper-connection”. This issue is therefore open to contributions that 
address one or more (as is more likely, given the “hyper-connected” 
nature of the crisis and its implications) of these topics with a 
theoretically wellgrounded analysis which ideally should be as 
comparative and documented as possible.

Proposals (maximum 1,000 words excluding bibliography) are required to 
illustrate the objectives of the paper, the research question and the 
methodology adopted.

They have to be sent to (rivista /at/ compol.it), to (guido.legnante /at/ unipv.it) 
and to (sergio.splendore /at/ unimi.it) by *March 25th 2021*.

The selection of proposals will take place by *April 10th*.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is *June 15th*. Manuscripts will 
undergo a double blind review system.

_No payment or fees are required_

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