[Commlist] Call for Papers: 'Contemporary Political Communication and the Postmediatic Public Sphere: Global Perspectives'

Call for Papers: Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies

Special Issue: 'Contemporary Political Communication and the 
Postmediatic Public Sphere: Global Perspectives'

Call for Articles Issue 19.2

30 January 2027:deadline for full articles

Guest Editors:

Dra. Michele Goulart Massuchin (Federal University of Paraná, Brazil)

Dra. Eva Campos Domínguez (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain)

Dr. Isabele Mitozo (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)

Dra. Dafne Calvo Miguel (University of Valencia, Spain)

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/catalan-journal-of-communication-cultural-studies#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/catalan-journal-of-communication-cultural-studies#call-for-papers>

Why this issue now?

Over the past two decades, political communication has been reshaped by 
the convergence of multiple crises and profound transformations in the 
media environment. Democratic backsliding, increasing political 
polarisation, public health and climate crises, as well as the 
proliferation of disinformation and other forms of information 
manipulation, have challenged not only the functioning of democratic 
institutions but also the communicative infrastructures that sustain 
public debate (Bennett & Livingston, 2018; Waisbord, 2018, 2023). 
Although these developments manifest themselves differently across 
political, cultural and media contexts, they constitute shared 
challenges that transcend national borders and call for comparative 
analytical frameworks capable of accounting for the diverse realities of 
both the Global North and the Global South (Couldry & Hepp, 2017; García 
Canclini, 2020).

These developments have coincided with a profound transformation of the 
public sphere. The media-centred communication ecosystem that for 
decades structured the circulation of political information has evolved 
into a far more complex, hybrid and platform-driven environment 
(Chadwick, 2017). Traditional news media no longer occupy an 
unquestioned position as the primary intermediaries of public debate and 
have experienced a gradual erosion of legitimacy and public trust. At 
the same time, political institutions, science and other traditional 
sources of epistemic authority are increasingly confronted with 
challenges to their credibility, while digital platforms have 
redistributed visibility across a wide range of actors, including 
influencers, content creators, hyperpartisan media, digital-native news 
organisations, civil society organisations and algorithmically connected 
communities (Carlson, 2020; Kreiss, 2021).

Beyond the emergence of new actors, these transformations have 
fundamentally altered the dynamics of political communication. Political 
information now circulates across multiple platforms, legacy and digital 
media, interpersonal networks and algorithmic systems that interact with 
one another, creating a communication environment in which participatory 
practices, automated recommendations and generative artificial 
intelligence increasingly converge. Consequently, political 
communication can no longer be adequately understood through 
media-centred perspectives alone but rather as an ecosystem in which 
multiple actors simultaneously participate in the production, 
circulation, interpretation and recontextualization of political 
information (Chadwick, 2017).

This reconfiguration of the public sphere has also repositioned publics 
as central actors in the communication process. Rather than acting as 
passive recipients of information, citizens interpret, redistribute, 
comment on, verify and produce political content. They navigate 
increasingly personalised media repertoires, encounter news 
incidentally, selectively avoid certain types of information, engage in 
distributed conversations and mobilise around causes that do not 
necessarily strengthen democratic deliberation (Fletcher & Nielsen, 
2017; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2017; Toff & Kalogeropoulos, 2020). 
Understanding these new modes of engagement with information is 
therefore essential for explaining how contemporary democracies function 
across diverse sociopolitical contexts.

This special issue approaches these transformations through the concept 
of the postmediatic public sphere (López García & Campos Domínguez, 
2025). Rather than implying the disappearance of the news media, the 
concept refers to the transition towards an ecosystem in which media 
organisations no longer occupy a privileged position as the primary 
organisers of public debate but instead operate alongside a broader 
network of digital platforms, political institutions, social actors, 
online communities and publics. The postmediatic public sphere is 
characterised by the multiplication of communicative spaces, increasing 
disintermediation, the emergence of new intermediaries and opinion 
leaders, the growing influence of platforms and algorithms, the 
integration of artificial intelligence into communication processes and 
the central role of publics in shaping public debate.

Against this backdrop, this special issue invites theoretical, 
methodological and empirical contributions that examine how political 
communication is being reconfigured within the postmediatic public 
sphere. We particularly encourage comparative research and studies 
conducted across different national and regional contexts, including 
contributions from both the Global North and the Global South. By 
bringing together diverse theoretical traditions, methodological 
approaches and empirical settings, this special issue seeks to advance 
international debates on the contemporary transformation of political 
communication while recognising the plurality of democratic and 
communicative experiences across different societies.

Topics

We welcome quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods and computational 
research, as well as systematic reviews, comparative research and case 
studies conducted across diverse political, cultural and geographical 
contexts. We particularly encourage submissions from the Global South 
and comparative studies that broaden our understanding of the 
contemporary dynamics of political communication.

Although this special issue places particular emphasis on publics and 
the ways in which they access, interpret, produce and circulate 
political information, contributions focusing on other actors, 
institutions and infrastructures that shape the postmediatic public 
sphere are equally welcome.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

· The postmediatic public sphere and new theoretical frameworks for 
understanding political communication.

· Publics, citizenship and emerging forms of political participation.

· News repertoires, incidental news exposure and news avoidance.

· Trust, legitimacy and the credibility of news media, political 
institutions and epistemic authorities.

· Influencers, content creators and other catalysts of public debate.

· The transformation of journalism and news media within the 
postmediatic public sphere.

· Digital platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence in political 
communication.

· Generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media and the future of 
political communication.

· Public-driven communication flows and the recirculation of political 
information.

· The production, circulation and reception of disinformation.

· Political polarisation, selective exposure, echo chambers and the 
fragmentation of the public sphere.

· Hate speech, incivility and anti-democratic attitudes.

· Institutional communication, parliamentary communication and relations 
between political institutions and citizens.

· Democracy, deliberation and participation in digital environments.

· Political communication in contexts of democratic, climate, public 
health and humanitarian crises.

· Comparative perspectives on political communication across the Global 
North and the Global South.

· Methodological innovations for studying political communication and 
publics in digital ecosystems.

· Alternative epistemologies and normative frameworks for understanding 
political communication, such as the right to communication.

Research articlesshould be around 7,000 words in length, while Viewpoint 
articlesshould not exceed 3,000 words (including notes and references).

Publication schedule

30 January 2027:deadline for full articles

Full articles should be submitted on the Catalan Journal of 
Communication & Cultural StudiesPubkit submission system 
<https://submission.pubkit.co/publisher/29/journal/379/login>(via the 
submit button on the journal website) by 30 January 2027, following the 
Author Guidelines 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/78992/1/CJCS_NFC.pdf>.

15 May 2027: final decision letters

Fall 2027: issue published

All selected contributions will be subjected to double anonymised peer 
review, except for the Viewpoint articles, which will be evaluated by 
the Editors.

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