[Commlist] CfP Meaningful Media. Survey on the Search for Meaning in the Media Sphere

CfP Ocula. Semiotic Eye on Media

Meaningful Media. Survey on the Search for Meaning in the Media Sphere

Ocula. Semiotic Eye on Media

Editors Francesco Galofaro <https://www.ocula.it/autori.php#32>, Nicolò 
Villani <https://www.ocula.it/autori.php#867> and Carlo Alberto Bondi 
<https://www.ocula.it/autori.php#1097>.

Deadline absract: 9 December 2025

It’s been ten years since Netflix arrived in Italy, and we can now see a 
consolidation of post-Convergence logics within an increasingly 
multifaceted media market. In this context, there are today divergent 
views regarding the role that structural approaches can play within the 
debate on Media Studies.
This issue aims to carry out a survey of methodologies, research, 
findings, and positions in the study of media, encompassing a broad 
disciplinary field — Semiotics, Ethnosemiotics, Sociosemiotics, 
Ethnography, Cultural Anthropology, etc. — that allows us to focus on 
how meaning is interpreted in the media today.
The goal here is to foster a fruitful dialogue between disciplinary 
approaches; this would serve as resources when engaging with the complex 
and heterogeneous debate that surrounds media studies.
 From television to cinema, from the study of digital platforms to 
social networks, without neglecting the fluid formats that today 
characterize seriality in audiovisuals, and podcasts, the proposals for 
this issue seek to form a heterogeneity of objects of study and 
disciplinary perspectives. The aim is to highlight the multiplicity of 
investigation ways opened up by Media Studies.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of topics of interest for this issue:


  * How does the structural approach contribute to media studies today?
    Through the analysis of texts, interfaces, data, and practices, what
    theoretical spaces open up for the traditional semiotic perspective?

  * The disruption of traditional formats generated by streaming and
    digital Convergence has given rise to media objects that exceed the
    boundaries of their definitions. How should we approach the
    distinction between individual and serial texts today? Do we need
    new models, or are the existing ones still valid?

  * Today, media practices have changed radically due to the now
    consolidated presence of digital realities, whether more
    institutional or open to user contributions. How are sociological
    and ethnographic perspectives addressing these changes?

  * The breakdown of international distribution boundaries through now
    global commercial actors has in recent years led to discussions of
    the “glocalization” of content, between global and local, also
    because of EU regulations. What effects are generated across
    streaming and similar interfaces in different territories? How does
    this reflect the variably national identity of a commercial context?

  * With the disappearance of an “institutionalized” and clearly
    recognizable form of cultural critics, discourse on the values of
    media products has multiplied and dispersed across different
    channels. How can we identify the discursivity that emerges from
    media texts, and what forms of interpretation can be brought into play?

  * How can we interpret the role of automation — from recommendation
    systems to forms of generative artificial intelligence, including
    social algorithms — in understanding the functioning and
    effectiveness of the media landscape?


Both theoretical contributions and those focused on case studies will be 
considered, provided that they clearly highlight an approach or methodology.


Deadlines
Abstract submission: 9 December 2025
Abstract acceptance: 8 January 2026
Article delivery: 13 April 2026
Return of opinions after double blind review: 15 June 2026
Delivery of revised articles: 17 August 2026
Publication: 12 October 2026

The abstract should be sent jointly to the three editors:
Francesco Galofaro: (francesco.galofaro /at/ iulm.it) 
<mailto:(francesco.galofaro /at/ iulm.it)>
Nicolò Villani: (nv.nico.villani /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(nv.nico.villani /at/ gmail.com)>
Carlo Alberto Bondi: (carloalberto.bondi /at/ unipa.it) 
<mailto:(carloalberto.bondi /at/ unipa.it)>

Informations:


  * The abstract must be approximately 160 words and must be submitted
    in both Italian and English. Accepted languages: Italian, English,
    French.

  * The acceptance of the articles and their publication is subject to
    double blind peer review. – There are no official limits of length
    to the articles, yet we recommend 40.000 characters as a reasonable
    maximum measure (including spaces, notes and references).

  * Files format accepted are .doc, docx, .odt.

  * The articles may include any kind of images. Images (photographies,
    graphs, tables) must be included in the main text file and submitted
    each as a separate file, in .jpg, .png, .tif, .eps, .psd formats.

  * The Authors must send their contribution in two versions: one in
    anonymous form, to be sent to the reviewers, and the other
    containing name, position, email, website, biographic notes (100
    words). Each version must be a separate file.

  * In the anonymous file, in any reference to the Author's publications
    the name must be cancelled and replaced by "Author" and the titles
    by "Title of the publication". The date must be let visible.

  * The Authors can find all the editing and format rules at the page
    "Come si collabora" (how to collaborate), on the Ocula home page:
    https://www.ocula.it/collaborazioni.php
    <https://www.ocula.it/collaborazioni.php>. The page includes an
    Italian, English and French text. Please read it carefully and
    follow the recommendations.

No payment from the authors will be required.


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