[Commlist] CfP for Media, Culture & Society: Media & Communication Research Scholarship in the age of AI

Call for Papers for Media, Culture & Society – CrossCurrents Special Section

*Media & Communication Research Scholarship in the age of AI*

https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mcs/call-for-papers/crosscurrents_special_section 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mcs/call-for-papers/crosscurrents_special_section>

The rapid integration of generative AI into media and communication 
research is reshaping the training and formation of emerging 
researchers, demanding renewed reflection on how the field understands 
knowledge production and transmission, academic labour, expertise, and 
pedagogy. Generative AI tools are changing how new generations of 
researchers search for, read, synthesise, process, and interpret the 
fields’ literature.

Crucially, the ways in which emerging researchers position their own 
academic voice and intellectual contribution in relation to existing 
debates may differ significantly from those experienced by previous 
generations. These developments have already created points of 
divergence but also tensions between generations of scholars whose 
research practices, methodological habits, and views of academic rigour 
may be shaped by different relationships to digital technologies and 
AI-assisted forms of work.

Media, Culture & Society’s Crosscurrents Section invites contributions 
that help tackle these challenges, advance reflections and approaches, 
and improve our understanding of the unfolding impact(s) of generative 
AI technologies on media and communication research. The launch of the 
special section was inspired by Usha Raman and Aniruddha Jena’s article 
“Shortcuts and Scholarship: A Cross-Generational Reflection on AI and 
Academic Formation,” published in 2026 in Crosscurrents (Raman & Jena, 
2026), which will be included in the Special Section. As their article 
raises urgent questions about the future of academic formation in an age 
of generative AI, it asks specifically what may be lost when scholarly 
outputs become detached from the slower practices of reading, 
reflection, uncertainty, experimentation, and serendipity through which 
understanding traditionally emerges.

We welcome contributions that respond to Raman & Jena’s piece and/or 
critically examine how generative AI is reshaping media and 
communication research, research training, pedagogical practice, and 
knowledge production. We are especially interested in contributions that 
move beyond simplistic narratives of either technological optimism or 
technological threat and instead explore the complex, situated, and 
uneven ways AI is becoming embedded within academic life.

Eligible submissions will address issues that might be of interest to a 
wider readership but should be situated within a media and communication 
studies scholarship and in line with the journal’s aims and scope. We 
encourage reflections from different national, institutional, 
disciplinary, and generational locations, including contributions from 
scholars working across both Global North and Global Majority contexts.

Prospective authors should submit articles of 3,000-4,000 words. The 
articles should be formatted according to the journal guidelines 
provided here: /author-instructions/MCS
Submissions should be made through the journal’s manuscript platform and 
please select the 'CrossCurrents Special Section: Media & Communication 
Research Scholarship in the age of AI' manuscript type.
Selected articles will be published in the Crosscurrents section of 
Media, Culture and Society.
Please direct editorial queries to the guest editors, Julia Giese 
((j.giese /at/ derby.ac.uk) <mailto:(j.giese /at/ derby.ac.uk)>) and Devina Sarwatay 
((devina.sarwatay /at/ citystgeorges.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(devina.sarwatay /at/ citystgeorges.ac.uk)>).
For administrative queries, please contact the journal administrator, 
Jayne Brian ((mcsarticles2017 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(mcsarticles2017 /at/ gmail.com)>).
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

*Submission Deadline: 01 June 2027*

References
Jena, A., & Raman, U. (2026). Shortcuts and scholarship: A 
cross-generational reflection on AI and academic formation. Media, 
Culture & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437261472373 
<https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437261472373>


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