Digital Journalism will publish a special issue on the audiovisual turn in digital journalism, coordinated by researchers from Novos Medios

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The prestigious journal Digital Journalism will publish the special issue Operationalising the Audiovisual Turn in Digital Journalism, which aims to bring together cutting-edge research that contributes to a better understanding of how the production, circulation, and consumption of journalistic content are being transformed within an ecosystem dominated by audiovisual formats and, specifically, by social media platforms.

The special issue is edited by Jonathan Hendrickx (University of Copenhagen), Sherwin Chua (Hong Kong Baptist University), and Novos Medios researchers María Cruz Negreira Rey and Jorge Vázquez Herrero.

The call is open to theoretical and empirical contributions that critically examine the audiovisual turn, how it manifests, and how it is evolving. Submissions employing innovative and diverse methodologies, contributions from the Global South, and comparative studies reflecting platform-specific and contextual differences are especially encouraged. Below is a non-exhaustive list of suggested topics:

  • The de-institutionalisation of audiovisual journalism and the emergence of non-journalistic interloper actors, including influencers and content creators.
  • Infrastructural platform dependency, algorithmic ambiguity, and the ownership of audiovisual content in the platformisation era.
  • The historical evolution of audiovisual journalism from traditional media formats to current platforms.
  • The production, content, and reception of audiovisual-centric digital journalism (vertical videos, shortform, audio, etc.) across legacy media, native digital outlets, and social media platforms.
  • The epistemology and ontology of audiovisual journalism.
  • News experiences and audience engagement with short-form videos and other audiovisual formats.
  • The production and publication of AI-generated audiovisual news or news-like content and its disinformation effects in an algorithmically mediated environment.

Proposals, a 500–750-word abstract (excluding references) submitted as a single PDF file, may be uploaded until 17 April 2026 (18:00 CET) via this form.