[Commlist] Cfp ZoneModa Journal "Mediatization of the Sport–Fashion Nexus: Trends, Convergences, and Transformations"

ZMJ Call For Papers: "Mediatization of the Sport–Fashion Nexus: Trends, 
Convergences, and Transformations"


We are pleased to invite submissions for the Special Issue of ZoneModa 
Journal, an  open access journal with no article processing charges (APCs).

Mediatization is commonly understood as a meta-process (Krotz, 2007) 
through which media logics permeate social institutions and cultural 
practices, producing long-term transformations at micro-, meso-, and 
macro-social levels (Hepp, 2012). Operating alongside other 
meta-processes such as globalization and commercialization, 
mediatization assumes differentiated forms across socio-cultural 
contexts. In the field of sport (Frandsen, 2020; Tirino, 2025), it has 
significantly reshaped organizational structures, cultural meanings, and 
value systems, redefining the relationship between media, sport 
institutions, and audiences.

These dynamics have intensified through successive waves of “digital 
mediatization” (Couldry & Hepp, 2016), associated with mobile 
connectivity, social media platforms, immersive environments, and 
generative artificial intelligence. Contemporary elite sport has thus 
consolidated its role as a highly mediatized, commercialized (Horne, 
2006), and globalized (Giulianotti & Numerato, 2018) cultural industry, 
exemplified by events and circuits such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA 
World Cup, the NBA, Formula 1, and the ATP Tour. Within the so-called 
“media/sports complex” (Jhally, 1984), the convergence of interests 
among sports organizations, media industries, and multinational 
corporations generates new forms of participation, visibility, and 
consumption, extending beyond sport-specific merchandise to the broader 
circulation of sports symbols across multiple product sectors.

Within this framework, the relationship between fashion and sport 
represents a particularly significant area of investigation. 
Historically rooted in class-based distinctions and embodied in garments 
associated with specific sporting practices (e.g. tennis, golf, 
sailing), sport has long functioned as a vehicle for the production and 
dissemination of styles, lifestyles, and values, co-constructed by media 
representations. Recent transformations are characterized by the 
progressive erosion of traditional boundaries between sport and fashion, 
as sportswear increasingly permeates everyday wardrobe and even formal 
dress codes — a process institutionalized in cultural settings such as 
the /Fashion V Sport/ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum 
(2009). At the same time, sport has partially reconfigured itself, 
acquiring renewed authority in technical, aesthetic, and symbolic terms, 
particularly evident during sports mega-events (Williams, 2025).

Further convergence has emerged through processes of hybridization and 
innovation. Collaborations between fashion designers and sportswear 
brands (e.g. Jil Sander and Puma) operate as experimental sites in which 
media visibility, design practices, and industrial strategies intersect, 
fostering innovation in materials, production technologies, and 
sustainability-oriented solutions (Bielefeldt Bruun & Langkjær, 2016). 
In this context, athletes and designers act as key mediators, mobilizing 
symbolic capital and professional identities within highly mediatized 
environments.

Social media platforms play a central role in these processes, enabling 
more direct, interactive, and partially disintermediated circulation of 
fashion- and sport-related value (Hou, 2025). They contribute to new 
forms of identification between brands, sports institutions, 
celebrities, and audiences (Loureiro et al., 2023), while the recurrence 
of mediatized representations supports the circulation of shared 
meanings and values within a framework combining personalization and 
commercialization (Driessens, 2013).

This special issue of /Zone Moda Journal/ invites interdisciplinary 
contributions about the cultural, symbolic, and socio-economic dynamics 
emerging from the mediatization of the sport–fashion nexus.


/Proposed thematic axes:/

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- technical sportswear and fashion trends;

- sports celebrities as fashion influencers, testimonials and trendsetters;

- media narratives of sports-fashion connections;

- sports fandom, social media, and fashion practices;

- sport–fashion relations in digital and immersive environments;

- digital fashion, e-sports, and video games;

- sports mega-events and fashion;

- fashion and forms of cultural resistance within the commodified 
media/sport complex.

/Submission Process/

Abstracts of no more than 600 words, excluding bibliographical 
references (word*.docx format), written either in Italian or English, 
are required to illustrate the objectives of the paper, the research 
question(s) and the methodology adopted. They must be sent, together 
with a short biographical note, to: (sicastellano /at/ unisa.it) 
<mailto:(sicastellano /at/ unisa.it)>; (zmj /at/ unibo.it) <mailto:(zmj /at/ unibo.it)> (with 
object: Abstract submission for ZMJ – Mediatization of the Sport-Fashion 
Nexus).

Authors will be notified of proposal acceptance by April 17, 2026.

Abstract acceptance does not guarantee publication of the article, which 
will be submitted to a double-blind peer-review process. Submission of a 
paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being 
considered for publication elsewhere.

/Key Deadlines/

- Abstract submission: March 15, 2026.

- Notification of acceptance/rejection: April 17, 2026 (notice of 
acceptance might include comments and requests for explanations).

- Full-length paper (6000/7000 words) submission: June 19, 2026.

- Comments of the reviewers will be conveyed together with the editor’s 
decision (approval with no changes, approval with major/minor changes 
and/or rejection): July 20, 2026.

- Authors shall send the reviewed article to the editorial staff 
by August 24, 2026.

ZMJ Vol. 16 N.2 is scheduled to be published by December 2026.


Link to the journal full text of the CFP:
https://zmj.unibo.it/announcement/view/757

Please note that this invitation does not guarantee publication, all
full manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process.

The Special Issue editors:
Mario Tirino ((mtirino /at/ unisa.it) <mailto:(mtirino /at/ unisa.it)> - DiCuS Lab, 
University of Salerno)

Antonella Mascio ((antonella.mascio /at/ unibo.it) 
<mailto:(antonella.mascio /at/ unibo.it)> - University of Bologna)
Simona Castellano ((sicastellano /at/ unisa.it) <mailto:(sicastellano /at/ unisa.it)> 
- DiCuS Lab, University of Salerno)

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