[Commlist] CFP Quaderns del CAC issue 52 – Public opinion and social transformation

CFP Quaderns del CAC issue 52 – Publication: February 2026

Public opinion and social transformation

**Deadline: 15 July 2025**

You can send your texts via the OJS platform of Quaderns del CAC in RACO.

< https://raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsCAC/about/submissions 
<https://raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsCAC/about/submissions>>

Quaderns del CAC is an electronic scientific journal on audiovisual 
communication published by the Catalan Audiovisual Council. It is an 
annual journal published every February entirely in Catalan, Spanish and 
English. The journal undertakes the correction and translation of the 
texts in the three languages.

Quaderns del CAC is a diamond open access journals with free access to 
their content and no article submission or processing charges to the 
authors (no APC).

Besides the monographic theme, the journal has the miscellaneous section 
"Articles", which is always open to receive articles and in which you 
can participate with texts on ongoing research on communication and 
audiovisual culture.

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Monographic theme. Issue 52. Public opinion and social transformation

The role of mediated communication in shaping public opinion has been a 
central topic for developing many theories. When the journalistic media 
had the exclusive role of social mediator with broad population groups 
–the so-called mass society– studies focused either on producing content 
or on audiences.

The agenda-setting theory was born in this historical context. Developed 
on the distinction between direct experience and experience through the 
media, this theory proposed an explanation for creating the public 
agenda. Maxwell McCombs' influential contribution in Setting the Agenda: 
The Mass Media and Public Opinion (2004) reinforced the theory that the 
media determines not only the issues of interest but also the way they 
are interpreted and, therefore, also have relevant effects on the 
attitudes, opinions and behaviour of citizens.

Over the years, this and other main theories on public opinion have 
evolved and their interpretations and practical applications have 
adapted to the changes in society and the media system, which has become 
much more complex and heterogeneous. Thus, the current context forces us 
to ask ourselves where and how public opinion is shaped, and, above all, 
the influence of the traditional and modern media in this process nowadays.

With the spread of misinformation and polarisation, enhanced by the 
far-reaching communicative reach of new digital media and social 
networks and their influence on the communication industry, studying the 
formation of public opinion is a challenge. It continues to be related 
to the interests of the most influential agents (political, economic, 
religious, etc.), but their profiles are very diverse and not always 
recognisable, and they circulate disparate and often contradictory content.

The study of public opinion remains central to understanding what causes 
social transformation, but the idea of social progress has been 
shattered. Despite the measures already adopted, it is easy to find 
on-screen ideas opposed to human rights.

 From the point of view of production, journalism coexists with 
practices far from the values and practices of the profession so it is 
almost impossible to avoid fake news, false information, and, what is 
even more worrying, it is not always easy to distinguish it. The variety 
of media players has multiplied and different interests come into play. 
Alongside the media, there are political parties, activists, 
intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, and people from the world of 
culture, who put their opinions into circulation, sometimes without 
solid foundations. This is fertile ground for self-interested discourse, 
which can become dangerous for citizens, as in the case of 
pseudo-scientific discourse or hate speech, to mention just two examples.

 From the audience's point of view, algorithms are consolidating 
themselves as curators of consumption. Concepts such as the echo chamber 
or the bubble effect, which indicate the impoverishment of public 
opinion by prioritising consumption limited to several topics and 
opinions as an effect of personalised recommendations, are being widely 
debated. The networks boast the ability to reach users with the content 
they are most interested in, but their actual capacity to influence has 
yet to be demonstrated. At the same time, most viral messages do not 
always promote responsible and consensual public opinion, as evidenced 
by the ease of the proliferation of conspiratorial messages.

Democratic systems, based on citizen participation, require a 
well-informed and critical citizenry. In Inventing Human Rights: A 
History (2007), Lynn Hunt (2007) reflects on the process needed for an 
idea to take root in society, and for the social mood to be receptive to 
changes based on the common good, equality and respect. The author 
argues that Human Rights ended up making an impact because there was 
literature that helped people to get to know and empathise with 
realities different from their own, especially in the cases of the most 
disadvantaged people. Given the advance of the extreme right, we believe 
it is urgent to reflect on the processes of public opinion shaping and 
what favours partial, inaccurate (if not false) or propagandistic 
discourses that define the current public agenda. Is it access to 
quality information guaranteed today? Where might the changes taking 
shape with the development of automated segmentation of media-cultural 
consumption lead us? These are just two of the many questions that arise 
and that we pose here.

 From Quaderns del CAC, we encourage you to send us proposals that help 
us to define and understand how public opinion is formed today. As a 
guideline, we propose these thematic approaches.

- Theoretical consideration about the shaping of public opinion in the 
present context marked by digitalisation, disinformation, and polarization.

-Public opinion and the political system: How does the political system 
influence the function and scope of the media?

-The gestation of public opinion on current issues (war conflicts, 
climate change, international relations, management of public resources, 
historical memory, citizen security, the animal movement, etc.), 
considering both the creation and circulation of messages and the 
processes of reception and potential social changes linked to them.

-The opinion trends in social media. With time, social media are ceasing 
to be a space for human interaction with close or known people. The 
creation, dissemination and moderation of content now respond to 
technological criteria, in many cases automated, difficult to trace and 
understand. This leads to significant changes, such as the loss of trust 
in the sender and the content, an aspect traditionally considered 
essential for assessing information as truthful or an opinion as reliable.

-Censorship, cancellation and bias. Those topics and perspectives left 
unsaid or hidden are also decisive in the shaping of public opinion? How 
and by whom is censorship exercised these days? How do the algorithmic 
systems work in this regard and what are their limitations? Can we speak 
of self-censorship?

-Polls and surveys in the media. Opinion polls are the subject of media 
information and debate, but who conducts them and how? Is there a 
consensus when it comes to describing and interpreting their results?

-Corporate communication. Large business conglomerates are nowadays 
essential communication agents and their ties to power are increasingly 
visible. How can corporate communication contribute to changes in 
opinion trends?

-The communication strategies of lobbies and think tanks. What role 
these powerful and influential economic, political and media actors do 
play in shaping public opinion?

-The role of culture in forming public opinion. Series and other 
platform content, in addition to cinema, are of interest due to their 
historical background.

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