[Commlist] CFP: Aging, Platforms and the Politics of Digital Media: Baby Boomers as Couch Potatoes

*Call for Chapters — Second and Final Call*

*/AGING, PLATFORMS AND THE POLITICS OF DIGITAL MEDIA: Baby Boomers as 
Couch Potatoes/*

Palgrave Macmillan — Global Media Policy and Business series (under 
contract)

*Editor: *Lucian Georgescu (UNATC)

*Series Editor: *Petros Iosifidis (City St George’s, University of London)

*Editorial context*

The volume is *under contract with Palgrave Macmillan* in the Global 
Media Policy and Business series, and, following a successful first call 
for chapters, approximately *70% of the book is already complete*, under 
the title /Aging, Platforms and the Politics of Digital Media: Baby 
Boomers as Couch Potatoes/.

The chapters confirmed so far provide strong coverage of European media 
systems — Western, Central, and South-Eastern European case studies 
alike — and South America is also represented. To secure the genuinely 
global scope the volume promises, the editor is issuing this second and 
final call, and *particularly encourages submissions from, or focusing 
on, North America (the United States and Canada) and Australasia 
(Australia and New Zealand)*, regions that remain underrepresented in 
the collection. Contributions offering East Asian perspectives — for 
instance on older adults’ intensive use of short-video platforms — are 
also warmly welcomed, as are chapters on aging audiences in 
industrialised African media markets (e.g., South Africa), including 
critical work on how the “Baby Boomer” category itself translates — or 
fails to translate — beyond its Western postwar context and the 
decolonisation period. Proposals from other regions will be considered 
where they clearly complement the existing table of contents.

*About the volume*

This volume examines the intersection between the Baby Boomer generation 
(broadly defined as born between 1946–1965, therefore including the 
so-called sub-set “Jones generation”) and the digital media ecosystem 
they now inhabit as retirees. We investigate how global platforms, media 
policies, and content economies frame, include, or marginalize this 
increasingly relevant demographic, and we seek to spark a much-needed 
conversation about how one of the world’s most populous and diverse 
generations lives, watches, resists, adapts, and redefines media after 
retirement.

We invite original scholarly chapters exploring how Baby Boomers 
interact with or are positioned within today’s global media systems, 
particularly in terms of digital access, streaming, social isolation, 
nostalgia, algorithmic bias, civic engagement, and economic agency.

The volume is organized around four main thematic axes:

1.*Globalization*: Cross-border content flows, the expansion of OTT and 
streaming platforms, and the role of global vs. local content for aging 
users.

2.*Business/Economics*: The “silver economy” in media consumption; 
marketing to 50+ audiences; economic marginalization vs. monetization of 
aging viewers; platform strategies and commercial design (subscriptions, 
UI/UX, retention models).

3.*Policy and Regulation*: How national and supranational frameworks 
(accessibility, data protection, media literacy, active aging policies) 
address or ignore older users. Comparative analyses of regulatory models 
and their effectiveness in addressing digital inequality are encouraged.

4.*Critical Perspectives*: Structural exclusion, digital alienation, 
algorithmic ageism, boredom and overconsumption, affective media 
strategies (e.g., nostalgia, emotional manipulation), and pathways to 
reintegration, digital media activism, civic agency, or 
intergenerational connectivity.

*Chapter directions we would especially welcome in this second call 
include (but are not limited to):*

•Streaming habits, cord-cutting, and “post-linear” audience behavior 
among North American Boomers

•Boomers as political publics online in the US and Canada (e.g., 
Facebook communities, cable-news-to-platform migrations)

•US, Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand regulatory approaches to 
age-inclusion, accessibility, and digital rights for older adults

•Public service media and aging audiences in Australasia

•The silver economy and marketing to 50+ audiences in North American and 
Australasian markets

•Older adults and short-video cultures (TikTok, Reels, and their 
regional counterparts)

•Algorithmic personalization, algorithmic ageism, and older users

•Media-driven loneliness and digital coping rituals

•Nostalgia, memory, and national archives in the digital space

•Representations of aging in global platform content

•Accessibility in UX and platform design

•Comparative case studies across national or linguistic contexts

The editor is currently seeking financing for an Open Access publication 
via a Creative Commons license to maximise exposure and academic readership.

*Submission guidelines*

•Abstract: 300–400 words

•Short bio: 100 words per author

•Language: English

•Chapter length: 6,500–9,000 words (if accepted)

*Timeline*

•Abstract deadline: *September 15, 2026*

•Notification of acceptance: *October 1, 2026*

•Full chapters due: *November 15, 2026*

•Final revisions: within 2 weeks of editorial feedback

•Publication: 2027

Please send abstracts and bios (Word or PDF) by September 15, 2026 to 
Lucian Georgescu at (lucian.georgescu /at/ unatc.ro) 
<mailto:(lucian.georgescu /at/ unatc.ro)>.

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