[Commlist] Call for Contributions for Special Section "Norms, Power Relations and Injustices in Digitality: Global Perspectives" for Global Media Journal - German Edition

GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL - GERMAN EDITION

**Call for Contributions for a Special Section – Autumn/Winter 2025**

“Norms, Power Relations and Injustices in Digitality: Global Perspectives”

Guest Editors:

Christoph Böhm (Stuttgart Media University)

Oliver Zöllner (Stuttgart Media University & Heinrich Heine University 
Düsseldorf)

The internet and its applications are known to be full of undesirable, 
often inhumane content. For a number of years now, digital companies 
have been under regulatory obligation to delete certain content from 
their platforms that is deemed problematic (“content moderation”). This 
practice itself is in part problematic, as the normative basis for what 
is considered desirable or acceptable, and what is considered 
undesirable or unacceptable, is highly contextual and culturally 
dependent. Legal regulations can vary from country to country, often 
leading to accusations of illegitimate censorship. Furthermore, for 
economic reasons, the equally controversial design of deletion practices 
is often outsourced to relatively marginalized countries with lower wage 
levels. This results in ethically questionable and precarious working 
conditions, in which people have to carry out psychologically stressful 
work. This includes, for example, having to view, evaluate and, if 
necessary, delete depictions of violence, child pornography, hate speech 
and propaganda.

In a special section of the Global Media Journal – German Edition, we 
invite interested authors to submit contributions on this topic. 
Submissions may be written from the perspective of media and 
communication studies, sociology, cultural studies, and/or ethics and 
philosophy. Contributions with an interdisciplinary orientation are 
especially welcome in order to further initiate a dialogue between the 
disciplines and to enrich the discourse on power relations, the setting 
and enforcement of norms and questions of justice and injustice in 
digitality.

Research topics and questions for this special issue include, but are 
not limited to:

• How are “content moderation” and its deletion practices organized? 
What is deleted, how and why? Who sets the standards and criteria? How 
transparent are they? How do these standards affect content, timelines, 
feeds, etc.?

• How does the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) affect 
these processes? What training data is used as the basis for deletions?

• What are the consequences of “content moderation” at the micro level 
(e.g., for the people entrusted with the task), the meso level (e.g., 
for the platforms/companies) and at the macro level (for society)? What 
problems arise from these consequences at the different levels?

• What image of humanity, or human nature, is behind “content 
moderation” or results from it?

• What injustices can be identified in the face of deletion practices? 
How do they relate to concepts of justice?

• What starting points emerge from these topics for the further 
development of theories of globally oriented media ethics, digital 
ethics and AI ethics?

Submissions are welcome in English or German.

**Submission Guidelines**

-             Diamond Open Access, no APCs

-             
https://www.globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/submission-guidelines

**Timetable**

• Submission of abstracts: 1st December 2024

• Response to authors: 15th January 2025

• Deadline for full papers: 30th May 2025

• Publication: January 2026

Abstract: We invite you to send in an abstract of max. 300 words (PDF), 
in English or in German.

Formats for contributions: Academic articles (peer-reviewed); essays; 
media practice & research reports; graduate section; interviews

**Submission & Style Guide**

Please submit via the website: https://globalmediajournal.de

Manuscript design: 
https://globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/7

If you have any questions about content-related aspects, please contact 
the guest editors Christoph Böhm ((christoph.boehm /at/ infosophia.de)) and 
Oliver Zöllner ((zoellner /at/ hdm-stuttgart.de)); for editorial queries, 
please contact GMJ-DE editor Katharina Nötzold ((gmj /at/ polsoz.fu-berlin.de))

**Aims and Scope**

The GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL – GERMAN EDITION (ISSN 2196-4807) is a diamond 
open access, peer-reviewed journal for the publication of scholarly 
contributions dealing with issues of international, transnational, 
intercultural and transcultural communication and media, published in 
English and German twice a year. No article processing charges (APCs) 
are incurred. The journal is indexed in DOAJ, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, EuroPub, 
BASE and Ulrich`s. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. This 
means that your articles can be submitted any time for our various 
sections (peer-review, essays, from the field, graduate section, book 
reviews). We are also open to discuss guest-edited issues.

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