[Air-L] CFP special issue "Digital Resilience within a Hypermediated Polycrisis"

[Esteve Del Valle, M.]

Dear colleagues,
I am excited to share the CFP for the special issue "Digital
Resilience within a Hypermediated Polycrisis:
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#DigitalResilience

*Editor(s): *
Marc Esteve Del Valle (University of Groningen), Ansgard Henrich
(University of Groningen), and Anabel Quan-Haase (University of Western
Ontario)

*Submission of Abstracts: *1-15 May 2025
*Submission of Full Papers: *15-30 September 2025
*Publication of the Issue: *January/June 2026

*Information: *

As the world faces a state of interwoven and overlapping crises—Covid-19
pandemic, climate change, and ongoing wars with global scope—referred to as
“polycrisis” (Morin & Kern, 1999, p. 74), the role of media, and in
particular of online social networks (boyd & Ellison, 2007), in affecting
people’s resilience to withstand these crises remains understudied (Craig
et al., 2015). This is problematic, as people’s extensive engagement with
online social networks intertwines resilience to these crises with their
practices on these digital platforms (Esteve-del-Valle et al., 2022).

This thematic issue aims to discuss how digital resilience (Tomkova, 2020)
can be (re)defined within a state of polycrisis that—thanks to increased
global connectivity through digitization—can be characterized as
“hypermediated” (Hepp, 2020). It aims to bring together theoretical,
conceptual, and empirical contributions examining how digital resilience
can help counter digital threats such as mis/disinformation, conspiracy
theories, malicious bots, or deepfakes (among others). The editors welcome
proposals that focus on both individual countries and comparative studies
employing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches.

We welcome proposals that address (yet are not limited to) potential
questions/themes such as:

   - How can digital resilience be (re)defined within the current
   hypermediated polycrisis?
   - How can digital resilience be conceptually integrated with digital
   literacy?
   - What strategies can be employed to enhance digital resilience in
   countering misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms?
   - How can digital resilience help mitigate current polarizing and
   radicalizing narratives in online social networks?
   - What measures can be taken to build digital resilience against
   polluted online environmental discussions?
   - What role can journalists play in increasing digital resilience
   against the so-called crisis of trust in media?

We particularly seek contributions that employ interdisciplinary approaches
and strive for a balanced representation of gender and non-Western
viewpoints.

*References*

boyd, d., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition,
history, and scholarship. *Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication*, *13*(1),
210–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

Craig, S. L., McInroy, L., McCready, L. T., & Alaggia, R. (2015). Media: A
catalyst for resilience in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
youth. *Journal of LGBT Youth*, *12*(3), 254–275.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2015.1040193

Esteve-del-Valle, M., Costa, E., & Hagedoorn, B. (2022). Network shocks and
social support among Spanish, Dutch, and Italian WhatsApp users during the
first wave of the Covid-19 crisis: An exploratory analysis of digital
social resilience. *International Journal of Communication*, *16*,
2126–2145. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18282

Hepp, A. (2020). *Deep mediatization*. Routledge.

Morin, E., & Kern, A. B. (1999). *Homeland earth: A manifesto for the new
millennium*. Hampton Press.
Tomkova, J. (2020). Digital social resilience: Navigating in the new
normal. *Cybersecurity and Resilience in the Arctic*, *58*, 413–426.
https://doi.org/10.3233/NICSP200060


*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).


*Open Access:*
Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this
issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of
our institutional
members
<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/institutionalmembers>
(over
90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article
processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We
defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and
encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to
cover open-access publication costs. Further information about the
journal's open-access charges can be found here
<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees>
.

Best wishes,
Marc Esteve del Valle

-- 
Dr. Marc Esteve Del Valle, *Senior Lecturer*, Centre for Media and
Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (The Netherlands) | Google
Scholar <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BtRD8IkAAAAJ&hl=en>