[Air-L] CFP: Examining New Models in Journalism Funding

[James Meese]

RMIT Classification: Trusted

Please find a CFP for Media and Communication titled ‘Examining New Models in Journalism Funding’ below.

We’re particularly interested in papers that address the growing funding of news media by platform companies. It’s also worth noting that there is an Article Processing Charge for the journal in some cases.

Editor(s): Merja Myllylahti (Auckland University of Technology) and James Meese (RMIT University)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2023
Publication of the Issue: January/March 2024

For well over a decade, the news media sector has been struggling through a series of financial crises. As a result, news companies have modified their revenue models, and they continue to do so. More recently, governments in some markets have launched new funds to support journalism, offering cash payments. Additionally, Google and Facebook are increasingly paying for news content.

These emerging funding models raise questions about how commercial media should be supported by the public and platforms. A recent report, commissioned by the New Zealand Ministry of Culture and Heritage, argues that “there is no need for ongoing public funding for commercial news content,” (Loan et al., 2021) and that government funding presents risks around interference with editorial content.

In the past, scholars have investigated business models of journalism based on subscriptions, memberships, and donations, but there is a need to update our understanding of these models and any other emerging models of funding journalism in this decade.

Therefore, we invite scholars to submit theoretical, conceptual, innovative, and empirical scholarship that explores how these developments shape the news media sector and its relationship to democracy. We welcome qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research from across the globe.

The questions we are aiming to address include:

  *   Which theoretical frameworks and approaches are essential in investigating contemporary business models of journalism?
  *   How effective/sustainable are the emerging revenue models that rely on support from governments and/or platforms?
  *   How can we critically evaluate revenue models supported by the government and/or platforms?
  *   What kind of empirical evidence can be used to evaluate contemporary revenue models of journalism?
  *   What kind of paradoxes rise from the public/platform funding of private media?
  *   What are the democratic and societal impacts associated with the governmental and/or platform funding of the media?
  *   Are there case studies that exemplify sustainable revenue models of digital journalism?



References:

Loan, J., Murray, K., Pauls, R., & Woock, K. (2021). The implications of competition and market trends for media plurality in New Zealand: A report for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Sapere. https://mch.govt.nz/sites/default/files/projects/sapere-report-media-plurality-nz-feb22.pdf

Instructions for Authors:
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/abstracts>). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).