[Commlist] Call for papers - Special issue of the journal Media Studies

Call for papers - Special issue of the journal Media Studies

Regulation of digital technologies is high on the EU policy agenda. 
Platforms capture the attention of policy makers due to their dependence 
on user data, impacts on traditional cultural and audio-visual supply 
and demand, transnational reach, and excessive concentration of power. 
Academic approaches focusing on different facets of platforms have been 
many (e.g., Gillespie, 2010; Jin, 2015; Mansell, 2015; Srnicek, 2017; 
Rochet & Tirole, 2003) and some authors focused on the issue of the rise 
of platform society (van Dijck et al, 2018). The process has taken a new 
dimension with the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has 
amplified citizens’ usage of online platforms, both for work and for 
leisure. However, this is a multisided story where the level of digital 
inequalities in access and skills needs to be taken into account on the 
demand side. Moreover, the structural implications of supply of European 
cultural and audiovisual products via platforms also needs to be 
addressed. Policies are always lagging behind these practices, and in 
the context of dynamic platform infrastructures (Duffy et al, 2019) this 
is even more so. The European Union has been active in this regard 
(e.g., Evens & Donders, 2018; Evens et al, 2020), particularly with 
regard to developing strategic goals. The future impact of these 
policies, however, remains to be tested and verified.

Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy was one of the priorities of the 
former Commissions’ objectives. Small and medium size platforms can 
contribute to the growth of skills and jobs in the EU, but the 
domination of large, mainly US, businesses (e.g., Google, Amazon, 
Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix) opens up questions related to 
European identity, European integration objectives and the role EU plays 
in the globalised world (Vlassis, 2020, 2021). This is a recurring issue 
with the development of European media policies, particularly when it 
comes to balancing industrial and competitive goals with cultural and 
public service goals (e.g., Michalis, 2014; Murdock, 2014). With this 
special issue, we aim to go further from the established discussions of 
platformisation of cultural production (Poell et al, 2021). The main 
focus will be on the role of European Union policies on online platforms 
that affect supply and demand of cultural and audiovisual production. 
Attention will be given to unpacking social, political and economic 
dimensions of platformisation, moving beyond deterministic usage of term.

We invite papers that examine (but are not limited to) the following 
questions:

 >How can we interpret changes in European Union policies relating to 
online platforms and cultural and audiovisual sectors? How well, if at 
all, are they challenging US platform monopolies? How are they balancing 
market competition with cultural diversity and pluralism? What new 
stakeholders are emerging and what new policies are drafted/ created? 
Analysis tackling policies and practices in other countries that bring 
some comparative approaches are also welcome.

 >How do cultural content producers grapple with changes in platform 
governance (e.g., pricing strategies, content curation, privacy 
policies)? What are the implications for produced and distributed content?

 >What new types of creative labour practices are brought about by the 
online platforms and how can we best analyse the policies developed to 
mitigate these changes?

 >What are the consumption patterns of audiovisual and cultural content 
through platforms? What, if any, EU policies are targeting citizens’ 
access and skills to use such content?

 >With the increase of the usage of online platforms during the 
COVID-19 pandemic has there been an acceleration of the (re)creation of 
digital cultural policies (in Europe)? What theoretical frameworks would 
be best suited to interpret these changes?

Please note that guest editors welcome submissions on a wide variety of 
theoretical and/or

empirical contributions to the study of the impact of platforms on 
(policy) developments

of cultural and audiovisual sectors.

Guest editors:

Jaka Primorac, Paško Bilić and Aleksandra Uzelac, Department for Culture 
and Communication, Institute for Development and International Relations 
(IRMO)

Papers should be up to 8000 words, including footnotes and references. 
Detailed

instructions for authors can be found at: 
https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/medijske-studije/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Papers should be submitted directly through the Media Studies OJS 
system, available at:

https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/medijske-studije/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions,

where they will undergo peer review following the usual procedures of 
the journal.

There are no fees or any other payment for authors required in the 
publication process.

The special issue is scheduled for publication in December 2022.

Deadline for submission of papers: 1st of May 2022

For more information write to:

(platEU /at/ irmo.hr); (jaka /at/ irmo.hr); (pasko /at/ irmo.hr); (auzelac /at/ irmo.hr);

More information about the journal at: 
https://hrcak.srce.hr/medijske-studije?lang=en

This Special issue is part of the activities of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet 
project ‘European Union Policies

and the Platformisation of Cultural and Audio-visual Sectors – platEU’ 
(2020-2022)

dedicated to promoting discussion and reflection on EU policies related 
to the impact of online

platforms on cultural and audio-visual (AV) sectors in Europe. More 
information about the

project can be found at the website of the project: 
https://plateu.irmo.hr/en

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