[Commlist] Call for Papers: Preconference on Journalism, Platforms and Public Interest Technologies

Call for Papers:
Journalism, Platforms and Public Interest Technologies: Applying PIT to 
Rebuild Trust, Infrastructure, and Civic Purpose in Journalism
Pre-conference to the ECREA Journalism Studies Section 2026
April 8, 2026 – University of Groningen

*Conference Topic*

In recent years, Public Interest Technology (PIT) has emerged as a field 
devoted to rethinking the institutions, infrastructures, and 
technology-embedded services that shape society for the common good. 
Defined by Tara Dawson McGuinness and Hana Schank (2021) as “the 
application of design, data, and delivery to advance the public interest 
and promote the public good in the digital age,” PIT has largely 
concentrated on governmental and nonprofit contexts. Yet journalism and 
media studies are increasingly recognizing the value of this framework 
for interrogating—and redesigning—the technological systems that 
underpin news production, distribution, and engagement.

This turn is overdue. Journalism’s long-standing mission to hold power 
accountable has been widely understood as foundational to democracy 
(Helberger, 2019;  Hampton, 2009). But that mission is under strain. 
Privately controlled digital infrastructures (Luitse, 2024; Simon, 
2022), opaque platform architectures, metrics-driven newsroom cultures 
(Dodds et al., 2023; Schaetz, 2024; Christin, 2020), and rapidly 
advancing automation systems are reshaping the conditions under which 
journalism can operate in the public interest (Sevignani et al., 2025). 
These shifts raise urgent questions about how journalists might adopt 
PIT principles to critically assess the technologies they depend on and 
how the field can imagine alternatives that better serve democratic needs.

This conference invites scholars, practitioners, and technologists to 
examine what is working, what is changing, and what tensions arise as 
journalism adapts its public mission through the lenses of design, data, 
and delivery. How might PIT reshape journalistic practices, media 
organizations, platform relationships, and collaborative models within 
newsrooms, across media systems, with platforms, and alongside public 
and civic actors?

*Proposed Topics:*

  *
    Conceptualizations of Public Interest Technology (PIT) for journalism.
  *
    Journalistic practices, in a broad sense, including fact-checking,
    open-source investigations, data journalism, visual investigations,
    and others, particularly when they advance the public interest.
  *
    New theorizations of the intersection between journalism,
    technology, (digital) infrastructure, power, and publics.
  *
    Experimentation in newsrooms (investigative collaboration,
    innovation labs, participatory and community-centered design,
    alternative distribution models) that reflects journalism’s evolving
    role as an architect of public-interest infrastructures.
  *
    Examinations of tensions between platform-driven technological
    logics and public-oriented visions of journalism.
  *
    New organizational, financial, technological, and collaborative
    models that are reshaping possibilities for PIT.
  *
    Platform governance, algorithmic visibility, content moderation, and
    data control that directly influence journalism’s capacity to
    function in the public interest.
  *
    Publics and communities that are emerging as co-designers,
    co-producers, and evaluators of journalistic knowledge and delivery
    systems, redefining trust, legitimacy, and shared meaning.
  *
    PIT as a form of critical media infrastructure that creates spaces
    in which citizens can engage in respectful, transparent, and
    equitable dialogue, offering a counterbalance to commercial platforms.
  *
    Different types of submissions are possible. You can submit a
    traditional research talk on one of the pre-conference topics, but
    you can also submit “work-in-progress” contributions on research
    projects that are still in progress. For those, the conference
    provides an opportunity to discuss their theoretical and
    methodological approaches, research designs, data collection, and
    other matters of interest.


The pre-conference aims to bring together researchers from diverse 
backgrounds. Experts from outside academia are also welcome, 
particularly to foster discussion between scholars and practitioners 
about central actors in the implementation of AI in journalism. In 
addition, we specifically encourage submissions from young and emerging 
scholars, particularly from the YECREA network.

*When submitting, please note*

The conference will be held in English.
Speakers are expected to be present. Virtual presentations are not possible.
Submissions must be in English and submitted as a .pdf file.
Please state whether your contribution is a research talk or a 
work-in-progress talk.
Please indicate whether the first author is a PhD student.
The abstracts should include the main idea/argument, research questions, 
theoretical perspectives, and/or information on methodology and 
empirical findings (if relevant).

*What, where, and when to submit*

Abstracts of no more than 500 words (references excluded) should be sent 
to *(doddsrojas /at/ wisc.edu) by 17 January 2026*, 23:59 (Central European Time)
All submitted abstracts will be reviewed. Acceptance notifications will 
be sent out on February 31, 2026.
Deadline for confirmation of participation is March 10, 2026.
The pre-conference will take place on April 8, 2026, at the Faculty of 
Social Sciences of the University of Groningen.

*There is no conference fee*. Participants with special needs are kindly 
asked to contact the organizers. Find more information here: 
https://ptml.sjmc.wisc.edu/2025/12/02/groningen/ 
<https://ptml.sjmc.wisc.edu/2025/12/02/groningen/>

*Conference Organization*

Tomás Dodds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Nadja Schaetz, University of Hamburg
Agustin Ferrari Braun, University of Amsterdam
Seth Lewis, University of Oregon
Bronwyn Jones, University of Edinburgh
Colin Porlezza, Università della Svizzera italiana
James Meese, RMIT University


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