[Commlist] CFP Problemi dell’informazione Special Issue: “Media and disability. Journalistic Representations, Digital Practices and Social Justice”

*Call for Papers _Special Issue - n. 1/2027*
*/Media and disability. Journalistic Representations, Digital Practices 
and Social Justice/*

*Guest editors: Gaia Peruzzi & Raffaele Lombardi*

*Description*


Disability Media Studies is an emerging disciplinary field situated at 
the intersection of Disability Studies and Media Studies. Its common 
ground lies in the critique of essentialist conceptions of the concept 
of disability: the constructivist approach of Disability Studies merges 
with the critical spirit of Cultural Studies and with theories that 
emphasise the role of media narratives in the social construction of 
reality, in order to deconstruct the perception of disability as a 
purely material issue.

The intersectional orientation of the field, together with its focus on 
everyday and popular experience - whether physically lived (as 
emphasised by Disability Studies) or mediated (as examined within Media 
Studies) - are other elements that strengthen the convergence between 
the two strands.

Over the past two decades, Disability Media Studies has thus 
consolidated a critical and interdisciplinary approach to the study of 
the relationship between media representations and conditions of 
disability, helping to challenge traditional deficit-oriented 
frameworks, i.e. those perspectives that describe disability solely as a 
lack, deficiency or deviation from a presumed norm of full functionality 
(Ellcessor, 2016). Such traditional approaches reduce the person with 
disabilities to their clinical or biological condition, obscuring the 
social, cultural and political dimensions of the disabling experience. 
In contrast, this strand of scholarship promotes perspectives grounded 
in diversity rights and social participation (Ellis/et al/., 2025; 
Ellis/et al/., 2021; Shakespeare, 2018).

In the meantime, the evolution of sensitivities and mentalities, the 
erosion of the sharp boundaries between presumed normality and 
disability by new vulnerabilities (neurodivergences, attention 
disorders, etc.), the spread of inclusion policies, and above all the 
demographic transformations, which with the ageing of the population 
have made it clear that frailty and disability are universal and not 
exceptional conditions, have made the issue a social priority.

Today, Disability Media Studies, far from considering the media as mere 
channels of representation, investigates how journalistic practices, 
audiovisual productions, social media and digital platforms contribute 
to the construction of collective representations and imaginaries and, 
at the same time, influence inclusion and exclusion policies (Barden, 
2018; Peruzzi, Battisti and Lombardi, 2024; Umar/et al/., 2024;). In 
particular, with the rise of digital media and participatory platforms, 
reflection has expanded to the active role of people with disabilities 
in the production of alternative content and narratives, capable of 
challenging dominant stereotypes and giving visibility to marginalised 
experiences (Jones/et al/., 2021; Baumgartner/et al/., 2021). Recent 
research highlights, for instance, how TikTok, YouTube or Instagram 
become spaces of self-representation and online communities where 
practices of cultural resistance and forms of/digital activism/emerge 
(Ellcessor & Kirkpatrick, 2017; Bitman, 2022). At the same time, it is 
pointed out that the platforms themselves are crossed by technological 
and algorithmic accessibility barriers that risk reproducing 
pre-existing inequalities (Alper, 2021; Holland/et al/., 2023). 
Furthermore, the presence of disabled activists and influencers on the 
Web, while obviously read as an opportunity for popularity of the topic, 
raises specific questions about the subjectivity-objectivity tension in 
professional journalism (Battisti, Bruno and Peruzzi, 2025).

In this perspective, Disability Media Studies is today a constantly 
evolving line of research, attentive to both the criticalities and the 
opportunities offered by the contemporary media ecosystem, and capable 
of interweaving cultural, sociological and political analysis of 
disability in the digital era (Pacheco & Burgess, 2024).

This monographic issue aims to bring together contributions that explore 
the state of Disabilities Media Studies, also from an international 
perspective. We welcome contributions that offer perspectives and 
methods to analyse how disability shapes media narratives and 
technologies, as well as how media represent and construct disabled 
bodies and subjects - and the world that surrounding them (caregivers, 
institutions and disability policies). Both a theoretical and empirical 
contributions are invited, provided they offer original insights for 
advancing reflection within the field.

This issue aims to contribute to a critical debate that refuses to 
separate the study of media from the cultural and political 
transformations shaping our societies. Within this framework, disability 
should be understood not as a marginal category but as a lens through 
which to reflect on the relationships between media, vulnerability, and 
social justice.

Below we outline a non-exhaustive set of possible thematic directions, 
which may also intersect with one another:

1. disability and Critical Media Studies: theoretical and methodological 
perspectives, approaches, methods of study, intersectionality;

2. frames and representations of the world of disability in information, 
mainstream journalism and social journalism;

3. frames and representations of the world of disability in mass-media 
narratives: literature, cinema, radio, theatre, etc.;

4. representations and narrative practices on disability in the 
platforms and "conversations" of online networks;

5. mainstream and specialist journalism on disability, disability 
influencers, editorial practices, disability-led media practices;

6. disability and social, institutional and political communication: 
disability campaigns, representation of people with disabilities and 
disability in diversity and inclusion policies, advocacy strategies, etc.;

7. disability and visual representations: problems and strategies of 
visual representation of disabilities, physical and cognitive;

8. disability and accessibility: inclusive communication practices; 
accessibility technologies and policies; social justice and medial 
citizenship processes.

_Key dates:_

• Deadline for abstract submissions: January 31, 2026

• Decision by issue editors sent by: February 15, 2026

• Full paper submissions: May 30, 2026

• First round of reviews completed by: July 20, 2026

• Resubmissions of papers: September 20, 2026

• Second round of reviews completed by: October 30, 2026

• Submission of final manuscripts: December 15, 2026


Abstracts (300-500 words plus references) in English or Italian should 
be submitted at:

https://submission.rivisteweb.it/index.php/pdi 
<https://submission.rivisteweb.it/index.php/pdi>

Abstracts should be proposed for the section “Saggi”. Please indicate 
that the proposal is for the special issue edited by Peruzzi and 
Lombardi in the box “Comments for the editor”.

For further information about the submission process, please contact: 
(_gaia.peruzzi /at/ uniroma1.it) 
<mailto:(gaia.peruzzi /at/ uniroma1.it)>_,(r.lombardi5 /at/ lumsa.it) 
<mailto:(r.lombardi5 /at/ lumsa.it)>

*There are no APC (article processing charge) for authors.*

*About the venue*

Established in 1976, Problemi dell’Informazione (PdI) has been the first 
Italian scientific journal focusing specifically on journalism and 
communication studies. Since then, PdI has represented a dedicated venue 
for the development of a vivid debate on these topics, fueled both by 
academic research and by contributions from professionals. More recently 
PdI has expanded its aims and scope by broadly considering all forms of 
communication, also to keep pace with the latest transformations in the 
field of journalism and of journalism studies. PdI publishes 
contributions in Italian and English after a rigorous double-blind peer 
review process.


*Principal Editor: Carlo Sorrentino.*

Here (https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195 
<https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195>

<https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195 
<https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/0390-5195>>) its national and 
international board.

Problemi dell'Informazione is A-class rated journal by ANVUR (Italian 
National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research 
Systems) in Sociology of culture and communication

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