[Air-L] Call for Papers for a Special Issue of The International Journal of Press/Politics: ”Youth, News, and Democratic Engagement”

[Cristian Vaccari]

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of The International Journal of
Press/Politics: ”Youth, News, and Democratic Engagement”

Also available at
https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/HIJ/CfPYouthNewsDemocraticEngagement-1594077808667.pdf

Guest editors:
Kim Andersen, University of Southern Denmark and University of Gothenburg
Jakob Ohme, University of Amsterdam
Erik Albæk, University of Southern Denmark
Claes H. de Vreese, University of Amsterdam

Citizens’ political engagement is essential for the well-functioning of
democracies. From boycotting products and signing petitions to discussing
politics, attending demonstrations, and voting, citizens’ political
engagement shapes our societies. In order for such engagement to take
place, people need information that can mobilize them. For a long time, the
news media was the key source in this regard. As a natural consequence
exposure to news and political information in the media is a well-known
forerunner for democratic engagement.

The relationship between news exposure and democratic engagement is
constantly evolving, however. In today’s hybrid media system, people get
information about politics and society from various sources and on many
different platforms. In the contemporary media environment an endless list
of information sources, including legacy news outlets, alternative news
sites, politicians, and interest organizations, are therefore competing for
people’s attention. Exposure to political information can take place on
traditional platforms, like television or newspapers, or on new digital
platforms, such as social media sites or other private online platforms.
Not all information is equally reliable, and mis- and disinformation is
part of the information ecosystem. At the same time, new forms of political
participation are also emerging, especially online where people, for
example, can discuss politics or contact politicians without much
investment.

When examining the consequences of such changes it is relevant to focus on
young people. Young people grow up with and get socialized into a political
world full of new information and engagement possibilities. As such, young
people are to an increasing extent turning their backs to traditional
legacy news outlets and getting political information on social media
sites. At the same time, they are engaging in new forms of political
participation. Young people can thus be seen as first movers—both when it
comes to news ways of getting political information and new ways of
engaging in politics.

In parallel, broader societal tendencies make young people especially
interesting to study in this regard. Across Western societies, as seen with
examples like the election of President Trump, Brexit, and the battle
against climate change, the combination of changing demography and
differential levels of political participation across age groups mean that
younger generations are experiencing that older generations are deciding
their future. Often these decisions are characterized by increasing support
for authoritarian populists and redistributive policies that massively
disadvantage the youth.

The developments described above call for new research examining young
people’s exposure to news and their democratic engagement. Despite the high
relevance of this relationship in contemporary societies, we know
relatively little of how changes in the media and political environments
are affecting the relationship between news exposure and democratic
engagement for young people. How do young people engage with news and
politics, and is their democratic engagement able to generate the change
they hope for and in which way?

Against this backdrop, this special issue invites original research that
fits the theme “Youth, News, and Democratic Engagement”. The invitation is
open for any methodological tradition, seeks international contributions
from across the globe, and is especially welcoming comparative work drawing
attention to how contextual differences influence the relationships under
consideration.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

   - Comparative differences and similarities in young people’s news
   consumption patterns across the world
   - What kind of political information are young people engaging with and
   with what democratic consequences?
   - Young people’s news avoidance and news snacking
   - Young people’s exposure to news on social media sites and its
   consequences for political knowledge and participation
   - Political socialization in a new and hybrid media environment
   - How does young people’s (digital) media literacy enable them to engage
   with news in today’s media environment with varying quality of political
   information?
   - Young people’s political discussions in networked (online) settings
   - How young people’s democratic engagement is affecting and affected by
   the norms of political discussion (civility, trolling, etc) and the quality
   of news?
   - Whether and how generational conflict between younger and older
   citizens is articulated on digital media
   - Novel news products and their relation with young people’s democratic
   engagement

Submission Information
Manuscript submissions for this special issue are due on 1 February 2021.
Please submit your work through our online submission portal (
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijpp) and ensure that the first line of
the cover letter states: “Manuscript to be considered for the special issue
on Youth, News, and Democratic Engagement”. Manuscripts should follow the
IJPP submission guidelines (
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/international-journal-presspolitics#submission-guidelines).
Submissions will be subject to a double-blind peer review process and must
not have been published, accepted for publication, or under consideration
for publication elsewhere.

Please note that, to ensure consistency, submissions will only be
considered for peer review after the 1 February 2021 deadline has passed.

Authors interested in submitting their work are encouraged to contact Kim
Andersen (kand at journalism.sdu.dk) with questions.

Timeline

   - Submission of full papers: 1 February 2021
   - Revisions and resubmission: August 2021
   - Online publication: January 2022
   - Print publication: April 2022 (issue 2-2022)

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Cristian Vaccari
******************************************************
Professor of Political Communication, Loughborough University
<https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/communication-media/staff/cristian-vaccari/>
Co-Director, Centre for Research in Communication and Culture
<https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc/>
Editor-in-Chief, *The International Journal of Press/Politics
<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/hijb>*
******************************************************
Personal website: https://cristianvaccari.com/
Google Scholar profile
<https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3_TethEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao>
Twitter: @prof_vaccari <https://twitter.com/prof_vaccari>