Call for papers: Media Literacy

Journal “Media Studies”

Special issue on Critical insights in European media literacy research and policy

In a mediated and digital world, theoretical and pedagogical ambitions for media literacy among audiences are often huge with the promotion of media literacy holding out promises of critical literacy, democratic engagement and participatory culture. However, these ambitions for media literacy have often met with insufficient resources, a lack of policy commitment and problems of measurement. The Task Force on “Audience and Media Literacy” of the Cost Action “Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies” would like to invite contributions to a special issue of the academic journal Media Studies, dedicated to the themes of new theoretical insights in media literacy research as well as methodological, pedagogical and policy challenges in the European context.

Framing media literacy within audience studies, this special issue seeks original empirical studies or new theoretical perspectives on conceptual, measurement or policy issues. Topics of interests include, but are not limited to the following:

To what extent audiences can be seen as media-savvy?
Is media literacy the same across all media?
Are citizens audiovisually and digitally literate so as to be able to handle sensibly whatever the media expose them to?
What kind of educational model is now adequate?
What measures should the educational authorities take in the field of Media Education?
What kind of policies should be encouraged from both national and European level?
What resources underline media literacy and how could these be further developed?
What kind of research methodology should be applied to measure the citizens’ skills on the new platforms?
How can European research on media literacy best promote dialogue across academic, policy and industry stakeholders?

Information about the Journal

Media Studies is an interdisciplinary journal Publisher by the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Political Science and the Croatian Communication Association. The journal provides an international forum for the presentation of research and advancement of discourse concerning media, communications, journalism, and public relations. See
http://www.fpzg.unizg.hr/index.php?q=/izdavastvo/casopisi/media-studies for information on the Media Studies journal, with the notes for authors, and with the .pdf version of the 2010 double issue.

Submission guidelines

If you are interested in this call for the special issue, send your abstract (max. 700 words) to the guest editors. Please use the following subject line in the email: “COST - Special issue Media Studies”. Notification to proceed developing an article will be sent to submitting authors by the end of February 2012. Upon this acceptance, manuscripts shall undergo a rigorous international, double-blind peer review. Manuscripts should be written in English, using Times New Roman; size 12; 1.5 line spacing; all pages should be numbered appropriately. The main text of the article shall be between 5,000 and 6,000 words. References must be incorporated into the text (not in end note format) and must follow the Harvard Style of Referencing. Please send your abstract or questions to:

María del Mar Grandío
MGrandio@pdi.ucam.edu

Tao Papaioannou
Papaioannou.t@unic.ac.cy

Christine Wijnen
christine.wijnen@univie.ac.at

Tentative Schedule

31 January, 2012 - Deadline for submission of long abstracts
28 February, 2012 - Notification of acceptance of abstracts by a team of special issue editors
31 July, 2012 - Deadline for submission of full-length articles for peer review
1 October, 2012 - End of peer review process (notification of acceptance or rejection /suggestions for improvement)
1 November, 2012 - Deadline for submission of final articles
1 December, 2012 - Ready for print
January 2013 – Publication of the special issue