[Commlist] Call for papers for the special issue: New European Media and Platform Policy: Implications for the Political Economy of News

Call for Papers for the special issue of the Medijske studije / Media 
Studies Journal: New European Media and Platform Policy: Implications 
for the Political Economy of News

Guest editors:
Tales Tomaz (University of Salzburg), Josef Trappel (University of 
Salzburg), Mercedes Medina (University of Navarra)

Important dates:
•       Extended abstract submission deadline (800-1000 words, excluding 
references): 20 June 2024
•       Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 August 2024
•       Full paper submission deadline: 15 December 2024
•       Special issue publication date: June 2025

Different economic arrangements of media and technology lead to 
different outcomes. Publicly funded media with independent governance 
structures usually provide more accurate and public-oriented coverage, 
upholding the rights of vulnerable groups (Benson, 2018; Cushion, 2017). 
Even distinct ownership and governance forms of private media matter: 
publicly traded companies are more aligned with general capitalist 
demands than family-owned outlets, or ad-based outlets are more 
sensitive to corporate interests than subscription-based ones (Dunaway, 
2008; Soloski, 2019). Thinking about these conditions is ever more 
important as the political economy of news has significantly changed in 
the recent decades. News has become digital (Newman et al., 2023), 
platformised (Poell et al., 2023) and produced and distributed by a 
variety of actors beyond media companies, ranging from big tech 
platforms to small alternative content producers (Mancini, 2020). In 
addition, the advertising-based business model of news production does 
not seem to be sustainable for the demands of democratic societies 
facing (geo)political, economic, societal and ecological crises, while 
the pressure on publicly funded media only increases (Sjøvaag & Ohlsson, 
2019). Far from the libertarian fantasy that an economy can be created 
outside the control or oversight of governments, political bodies are 
active in shaping the conditions under which all stakeholders operate. 
This is also true for media and technology (Griffin, 2023). Accordingly, 
the European Union has followed these developments and created a 
comprehensive regulatory package to influence the political economy of 
media and platforms. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the 
Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the AI Act 
and the Media Freedom Act (EMFA), among others, have laid down new 
baselines for the operation of media and digital platforms. To what 
extent are these changes having a real impact on the political economy 
of news production, distribution and consumption? Should we expect 
changes in EU countries in terms of ownership concentration, funding of 
public interest content or the balance between profit and non-profit 
news production? Does the new regulatory framework favour the promotion 
of public interest content? Should we expect EU influence in middle 
powers, which are often “policy followers”, shaping their regulation and 
political economy of news as well?

On top of those questions, the governance toolbox is more diverse than 
the one reflected in this EU regulatory framework. There are options on 
the table such as stronger antitrust enforcement against platforms (as 
attempted by the FTC in the US), increasing public subsidies to news 
media (the Nordic experience) or requiring platforms to fund news media 
(as represented by the Australian Media Bargaining Code). There is also 
the proposal to create a fully-fledged public service internet (D’Arma 
et al., 2021). Would such measures in Europe achieve better results than 
the current framework? What impact should we expect from different 
instruments? How to design these alternatives, given the current 
framework, and how to build the political will to bring them about?

This special issue welcomes proposals on the topics above and related 
discussions. Submissions can be theoretical, methodological or 
empirical, case studies or comparative work. Innovative use of methods 
is encouraged. We expect extended abstracts of 800 to 1.000 words, 
excluding references, by 20 June 2024.
Abstracts should be sent to (tales.tomaz /at/ plus.ac.at), 
(josef.trappel /at/ plus.ac.at), (mmedina /at/ unav.es) and (ms /at/ fpzg.hr).
Manuscripts should be submitted directly through the Media Studies OJS 
system. The manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review, 
following the standard procedure of the journal. When submitting the 
manuscript, please make a note that submission is for the special issue 
New European Media and Platform Policy: Implications for the Political 
Economy of News.
Manuscripts should be up to 8.000 words, including footnotes and references.

For more information about the special issue, please contact: 
(tales.tomaz /at/ plus.ac.at), (josef.trappel /at/ plus.ac.at), (mmedina /at/ unav.es) or 
(grbesa /at/ fpzg.hr).

Articles published in the Media Studies journal are indexed in the Web 
of Science Core Collection, Scopus, ProQuest - Social Science Database 
and Social Science Premium Collection, ERIH PLUS, Hrčak – The Portal of 
Croatian Scientific Journals and DOAJ – the Directory of Open Access 
Journals.

Medijske studije / Media Studies Journal DOES NOT apply articles 
processing charges and does not require any payments from the authors.

References

Benson, R. (2018). Rethinking the sociology of media ownership. In L. 
Grindstaff, M.-C. M. Lo, & J. R. Hall (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of 
Cultural Sociology (pp. 387–396). Routledge.
Cushion, S. (2017). The democratic value of news: Why public service 
media matter. Bloomsbury Publishing.
D’Arma, A., Fuchs, C., Horowitz, M. A., & Unterberger, K. (2021). The 
future of public service media and the internet. In C. Fuchs & K. 
Unterberger (Eds.), The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet 
Manifesto (pp. 113–127). University of Westminster Press.
Dunaway, J. (2008). Markets, ownership, and the quality of campaign news 
coverage. The Journal of Politics, 70(4), 1193–1202.
Griffin, R. (2023). Public and private power in social media governance: 
Multistakeholderism, the rule of law and democratic accountability. 
Transnational Legal Theory, 14(1), 46–89.
Mancini, P. (2020). Comparing media systems and the digital age. 
International Journal of Communication, 14, 5761–5774.
Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Eddy, K., Robertson, C. T., & Nielsen, R. K. 
(2023). Digital News Report 2023. Reuters Institute for the Study of 
Journalism. 
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023 
<https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023>
Poell, T., Nieborg, D. B., & Duffy, B. E. (2023). Spaces of negotiation: 
Analyzing platform power in the news industry. Digital Journalism, 
11(8), 1391–1409. Sjøvaag, H., & Ohlsson, J. (2019). Media ownership and 
journalism. In H. Sjøvaag & J. Ohlsson, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of 
Communication. Oxford University Press.
Soloski, J. (2019). The murky ownership of the journalistic enterprise. 
Journalism, 20(1), 159–162.




---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------