[Commlist] CFP Participations Special Issue on SVODs, audiences and democracy in Europe

Participations invites contributions to the November 2026 issue 
exploring the relationship between streaming platforms (SVODs) and 
democracy in Europe from a reception and audience perspective. 
Participations has a distinctive form of open peer review to foster more 
collaborative and supportive discussions. Publishing in Participations 
is open access and free of charge.

The European audiovisual landscape is complex, with a huge variety of 
content providers and a traditionally strong public service. While only 
about 10% of all European providers feature public ownership, these play 
a key role as facilitators of original European productions across the 
continent (Fontaine, 2024:7; Antoniazzi et al., 2022). However, the US 
has a substantial and increasing influence on the European audiovisual 
sector (Schneeberger, 2024:7). The SVOD segment, as the most 
concentrated market segment in Europe, has the highest share of US (84%) 
and private (99%) interests (Ene Iancu, 2024:10). In terms of SVOD 
consumption, a lion part of what is watched originates from the US 
(Grece & Tran, 2023; Iordache et al., 2023), and earlier concerns on US 
cultural imperialism have been revived (Davis, 2023; Lotz, 2021).

Recently, public service media across Europe have experienced dire 
economic conditions. For example, in Sweden, budget cuts were announced 
for public service in the spring of 2024 with the argument of unfair 
competition, while diversity and democratic arguments are downplayed 
(SOU 2024:34). This development is in line with the European 
Commission’s focus on competition and on creating a single market. 
Ultimately, this bypasses opportunities for cultural objectives such as 
media pluralism, cultural protection or social regulations (Humphreys, 
2008:154). Although the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive 
(2018) has sought to level the market between domestic and transnational 
platform suppliers and protect the production of film and television in 
Europe (Kostovska et al. 2020), the political space to discuss streamed 
content as culture seems to have shrunk. This has far-reaching 
consequences for European content and democratic values such as equality 
and diversity (Jansson et al., 2024). In this special issue for the 
journal Participations, we aim to investigate what these developments 
mean for audiences, as fiction consumers, but also – and especially – in 
their role as citizens.

On a theoretical level, there is a range of conceptualizations of how 
fiction (and culture) shapes citizens, including the “political self” 
(Van Zoonen, 2007), the cultural public sphere (McGuigan, 2005), and 
civic cultures (Dahlgren, 2009). Scholars have focused on identity 
formation, articulations of community (Askanius, 2019:273) and  “public 
connection” (Couldry ea., 2007; Nærland 2019:652), as well as the 
creation of “lifeworlds” (Bengesser, 2023: 63) to denote more complex 
orientations of the audience toward the public and the political.

On an empirical level, the link between fiction and democracy is often 
presupposed in research relating to democratic values or “the political” 
(Van Belle, Aitaki and Jansson, 2025). Audiovisual fiction has been 
argued to directly correlate with political engagement (e.g. Fielding, 
2014; Cardo, 2011) and opinion-formation or political attitudes (e.g. 
Hermann et al., 2023; Swigger, 2017; Adkins et al., 2014; Butler et al., 
1995). Indirectly, identities and bodies are assumed to be the glue 
between connecting audiences and democracy through the viewing of 
fiction (e.g. Smith, 2020; Yea, 2014). On a more structural level, 
fiction is seen as contributing to imagined worlds (Randall, 2011) or 
discourses (Kato, 2015). Regardless of theoretical belonging, most 
studies have a rather crude understanding of the audience and its agency 
(see e.g. La Pastina, 2004). This activates questions about how 
democratic values and political topics are negotiated in relation to the 
fictional content audiences watch. Further, it includes exploring 
audiences’ understandings of fiction in relation to their roles as 
citizens in a democratic European context.

This special issue is interested in contributions that could, but are 
not limited to, illuminate some of the following topics:

* The relation between SVODs, reception and citizenship or democracy

* Public service audiences and society

* Fiction and political activism from an audience perspective

* Viewers’ negotiation of identities via fiction, in relation to 
democracy and politics

* Viewers’ negotiation of political and democratic values in relation to 
fiction, such as equality, solidarity, community, or freedom

* Fiction audiences and political trust

* Missing audiences/citizens

* Media pluralism, cultural protection, social regulations, or diversity 
from an audience perspective

* SVODs’ conceptualizations of audiences and audiences’ 
conceptualizations of SVODs

* Fiction, ethics, and democracy from an audience perspective

Those with an interest in contributing should submit an abstract (max. 
750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is 
described along with an indication of the theoretical and methodological 
approach of the article. The abstract should contain the preliminary 
title and five keywords. A clarification on how the article fits into 
the overall scope of the issue should be included.

Send your abstract to the editors by 30 September 2025 on 
(jono.van-belle /at/ oru.se), (georgia.aitaki /at/ kau.se) and (maria.jansson /at/ oru.se).

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (maximum 8000 words 
including footnotes, bibliography, tables and appendices) will be 
notified by e-mail after the abstracts have been assessed by the 
editors. All submissions should be original works and must not be under 
consideration by other publishers. The reference system should be 
Harvard author-date format. More information on style and formatting can 
be found on the Participations website: 
https://www.participations.org/submissions/

Deadline for submission abstract: 30 September 2025

Deadline for full paper: 30 January 2025

Estimated publication date: November 2026


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