[Commlist] CfP: Theoretical Consolidation and Innovation in Media Psychology

Call for Papers

“Theoretical Consolidation and Innovation in Media Psychology”

A Special Issue of the Journal of Media Psychology, Curated by the Editors

Nicholas D. Bowman(1), Allison Eden(2), Jesse Fox(3), Christoph 
Klimmt(4), Özen Odağ(5), Catalina Toma(6), and Ivar Vermeulen(7)


(1)Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA
(2) Michigan State 
University, East Lansing, MI, USA
(3) The Ohio State University, 
Columbus, OH, USA
(4) Department of Journalism and Communication 
Research (IJK), Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, Hannover, 
Germany (5) Touro College, Berlin, Germany
(6) University of 
Wisonsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
(7) Vrije Universitteit Amsterdam, 
The Netherlands


*Background and Mission


Media psychologists constantly expand the range of domains, themes, and 
questions that they address in their research. Technological innovations 
– digitalization, mediatization, and dynamics of convergence in 
particular – motivate scholars to carry out many empirical studies on 
users, their processing, their experience, and (co-)production of 
messages, and related psychological outcomes. It is the mission of 
peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Media Psychology (JMP) to 
serve as chronicle of this progress and as archive of the knowledge 
produced.

However, the strong research dynamics and persist- ing arrival of fresh 
empirical insights can only lead to a flourishing and effective academic 
field if theoretical work moves ahead as well. Much empirical work in 
media psychology is guided by existing general theoretical frameworks 
(e.g., from social psychology or cognitive psychology); other studies 
rest on field-specific theoretical approaches (e.g., parasocial 
interaction, narrative persuasion). But regardless the origin of the 
theoretical base that media psychologists build on, it is important for 
the field to accompany the empirical day-to-day research business by a 
reflection on where a given theoretical approach is standing.

The mission of the special issue that the Editors of JMP will be 
curating and that will appear in early 2021 is to catalyze such 
theoretical development by mobilizing authors’ efforts for either 
formalizing new models or theories in media psychology or for discussing 
prominent existing theoretical frameworks, their empirical validation, 
predictive usefulness, and potential needs for revision, extension, or 
even retirement. To serve the building of a community consensus over the 
key theoretical resources of the field, these discussions should 
therefore either focus on consolidation (i.e., review of existing works 
and debates around a theory or model) or innovation (i.e., propositions 
of extensions to or modifications of an existing theory or model, or 
even the development of entirely new conceptual approaches). We thus 
call for manuscripts that focus on a specific theory or model in media 
psychology. This theory or model is:

▪ either one that already exists and is “in use” and for which 
conceptual reviewing and knowledge consolidation or 
innovation/modification is indicated,

▪ or one that the authors develop as innovative addition to the 
inventory of theories and models of the field.

Such theoretical progress (through consolidation or innovation) will be 
most likely to materialize if authors team up who have been working on 
similar themes in the past but have not (yet) joined their theoretical 
perspectives. It is our explicit intention to inspire the formation of 
such new authorship networks, as we

(a)  want to increase the probability of actually new original thinking, and

(b)  want to avoid self-promoting review contributions of single 
researchers or research groups who essentially summarize and promote 
their own past (theoretical) work. 


The idea of forming new authorship teams is not mandatory, but strongly 
recommended in order to achieve effective theoretical consolidation or 
innovation.


*Manuscript Preparation and Submission


Only theoretical contributions that comply with the mission statement 
will be considered for this special issue. Authors are kindly asked to 
submit their manuscripts as Special Issue Articles through JMP’s 
editorial management system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/jmp

However, deviating from normal principles, submissions to this special 
issue will be subject to a two-stage process. In the first stage, 
authors are kindly invited to hand in an extended abstract of the 
theoretical consolidation or innovation project that they intend to 
complete. These abstracts should summarize and describe the envisioned 
content of the future full paper, and enable readers to understand the 
focus of theoretical consolidation or innovation as well as the line of 
argumentation and architecture of reasoning. An outlook of how the full 
text will be organized and structured is also a mandatory element of the 
extended abstract.

These abstracts must not exceed 2,000 words (excluding references).

In order to reduce the risk for authors, selection decisions will be 
made jointly by the entire team of JMP editors, based on external 
reviews of these abstracts. Only successful abstract submitters will be 
requested to hand in full manuscripts in the second stage. For these 
full submissions, publication in the special issue will be guaranteed, 
potentially after revision(s) according to editorial feedback and advice.

All manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s 
author guidelines for “Theoretical Articles”: 
http://www.hogrefe.com/periodicals/journal-of-media- psychology/


*Timeline


▪Submission of extended abstracts by April 30, 2020 

▪Invitations to authors of accepted abstracts to submit full papers by 
June 30, 2020

▪Deadline for the submission of full papers October 31, 2020



The Editor-in-Chief will oversee the entire process of special issue 
operations and also respond to any author inquiries. Please direct your 
correspondence to

Christoph Klimmt,
E-mail: (christoph.klimmt /at/ ijk.hmtm-hannover.de).
We wish 
all authors good luck, fun with finding co-authors, and much inspiration 
for theorizing and writing!





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