{"id":5021,"date":"2026-06-18T18:59:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/?p=5021"},"modified":"2026-06-18T19:08:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:08:31","slug":"media-communication-nextidigimedia-deliberative-democracy-journalism-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/2026\/06\/18\/media-communication-nextidigimedia-deliberative-democracy-journalism-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers from NEXTDIGIMEDIA edit a special issue in Media and Communication on deliberative democracy and journalism under the influence of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Principal investigators of NEXTDIGIMEDIA (PID2024-156034OB-C22) at USC \u2013and Novos Medios researchers\u2013 Berta Garc\u00eda Orosa and Jorge V\u00e1zquez Herrero, with Tom\u00e1s Dodds (Public Tech Media Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison) edit the upcoming special issue in <em>Media and Communication<\/em>, \u201cReconceptualizing Deliberative Democracy and Journalism in AI-Mediated Public Spheres\u201d. This issue \u2013 supported by the NEXTDIGIMEDIA project (PID2024-156034OB-C22) \u2013 seeks to advance scholarly debate on how digital and AI-driven environments are reshaping deliberative democracy and the role of journalism, addressing both the opportunities and challenges of contemporary communication systems. Abstracts are invited between October 1\u201315, 2026, with full papers due February 15\u201328, 2027, to be published in open access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/banner_4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5023\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogitatiopress.com\/mediaandcommunication\/issue\/futureissues#i589\">Reconceptualizing Deliberative Democracy and Journalism in AI-Mediated Public Spheres<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Academic Editor(s):<\/strong>&nbsp;Berta Garc\u00eda-Orosa (University of Santiago de Compostela), Jorge V\u00e1zquez-Herrero (University of Santiago de Compostela), and Tom\u00e1s Dodds (University of Wisconsin \u2013 Madison)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Submission of Abstracts:<\/strong>\u00a01-15 October 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Submission of Full Papers:<\/strong>\u00a015-28 February 2027<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Publication of the Issue:<\/strong>\u00a0July\/December 2027<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>About the Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When discussing the state of mass communication, academic debates oscillate between two simultaneous yet contradictory views: Some have celebrated the democratizing potential of new digital platforms to facilitate citizen discussion and lower barriers to information access; others, however, point to the risks associated with big tech platforms, particularly discursive fragmentation, incivility, and biased algorithmic architectures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moreover, traditionally hegemonic actors in the public sphere\u2014the state, political parties, and the media\u2014are experiencing a weakening of their roles, with some of their functions transferring to more volatile, new actors. Additionally, the rapid rise of AI in newsrooms once again places journalism at a turning point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This thematic issue is structured around two interconnected dimensions: the quality of deliberation in relation to normative models, and the media\u2019s role as mediators of political discourse. The objective is to examine how digital spaces\u2014and increasingly, AI-driven communication environments\u2014reconfigure traditional discussion practices through two main axes: (a) the role of media, digital architectures, and algorithmic systems; and (b) methodological innovation and hybrid intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We invite submissions related to the following thematic areas, although the list is not exclusive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Operationalizing deliberative quality in hybrid media environments and emerging actors in digital public spheres;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The social role of deliberative journalism in the age of AI;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Platform affordances and deliberative design;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Democratic backsliding, disinformation, and resilient public spheres;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deliberation beyond Western democracies from comparative and global perspectives;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Intelligence methodologies for studying online deliberation and journalism;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI and the democratic functions of journalism;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Algorithmic curation and information diversity in journalism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Submissions may take various forms, including empirical research or theoretical essays that advance scholarly understanding of deliberation, journalism, and democracy in the age of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Instructions for Authors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal&#8217;s instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogitatiopress.com\/abstracts\">here<\/a>). 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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Open Access<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogitatiopress.com\/mediaandcommunication\/pages\/view\/institutionalmembers\">institutional members<\/a>&nbsp;(over 100 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&#8217;s open access charges can be found&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogitatiopress.com\/mediaandcommunication\/about\/editorialPolicies#publicationFees\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Principal investigators of NEXTDIGIMEDIA (PID2024-156034OB-C22) at USC \u2013and Novos Medios researchers\u2013 Berta Garc\u00eda Orosa and Jorge V\u00e1zquez Herrero, with Tom\u00e1s Dodds (Public Tech Media Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison) edit the upcoming special issue in Media and Communication, \u201cReconceptualizing Deliberative Democracy and Journalism in AI-Mediated Public Spheres\u201d. This issue \u2013 supported by the NEXTDIGIMEDIA project (PID2024-156034OB-C22) &#8230; <a title=\"Researchers from NEXTDIGIMEDIA edit a special issue in Media and Communication on deliberative democracy and journalism under the influence of AI\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/2026\/06\/18\/media-communication-nextidigimedia-deliberative-democracy-journalism-ai\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Researchers from NEXTDIGIMEDIA edit a special issue in Media and Communication on deliberative democracy and journalism under the influence of AI\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publicacions-do-grupo"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"en","enabled_languages":["gl","es","en"],"languages":{"gl":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5021"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5033,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5021\/revisions\/5033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novosmedios.gal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}