Current Calls for papers
- Ownership and regulation of news media
-
Call for papers for a special issue of Nordicom Review
Preliminary title: Ownership and regulation of news media and digital platforms in Europe
Editors
- Mark Blach-Ørsten (Roskilde University)
- Tobias Lindberg (Nordicom, University of Gothenburg)
- Helle Sjøvaag (University of Stavanger)
- Josef Trappel (University of Salzburg)
Contact: Tobias Lindberg, tobias.lindberg@nordicom.gu.se
Important dates
- Deadline for extended abstracts: 2 May 2023
- Invitations to submit full paper sent: 15 May 2023
- Deadline for full submissions: 2 October 2023
- Peer review (including revisions): November 2023–January 2024
- Expected publication: Spring 2024
Background and aim
The question of ownership has always been central in studies of news media and power. Today, this question is more important than ever, as witnessed by the focus on media ownership in the European Commission Media Freedom Act (2022), as well as the rise and growing centrality of digital platforms that greatly influence both news media and journalism (Flew, 2021; Flew & Wilding, 2021; Meese, 2021). Recent studies suggest that the regulation of ownership and transparency of ownership still vary across Europe (Craufurd Smith et al., 2021). Studies also suggest that since there is a great deal of convergence between laws, rules, and regulations governing the digital platforms – and those relating to media and communications policy more generally (Flew & Wilding, 2021) – it is becoming increasingly difficult to discuss the regulation of one part (the news media) without a focus on the regulation of other central parts (like the Internet and digital platforms) (Meese, 2021).
This shifting field of media and communications also means that ownership and control of news media grows increasingly complex, not least empirically. Collecting data on media ownership is challenged by varying degrees of transparency across European media systems, hampering comparative work, while the many forms of capture (by, e.g., owners, platforms, and corporations) makes it difficult to assess ownership effects. Moreover, conceptually, there is still no clear agreement on how ownership forms are best operationalised and separated. Not only is news media ownership consolidating and concentrating across Europe, emerging forms of economic control and influence (e.g., nonprofit funding by tech giants, Covid-19 recovery measures, and taxation schemes) remain understudied.
Building on this background, the editors of this special issue invite scholars to submit articles with a focus on the ownership and regulation of news media and digital platforms in Europe.The articles may include a focus on the following:
- Transparency of news media ownership (local, national, legacy, digital), including questions of public access
- Ownership and journalistic autonomy
- Concentration of media ownership
- Media policy, regulation, and digitalisation
- Imbalances in regulation between national news media and global digital platforms
- Transnationalisation and globalisation of ownership
- Financial transparency and economic control
- Measurement issues regarding ownership and concentration
- Best regulatory practices in controlling media and platform ownership concentration
Procedure
Those with an interest in contributing should write an extended abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is described. The abstract should contain the preliminary title and five keywords. How the article fits with the overall aim of the issue should be mentioned.
Send your extended abstract by 2 May 2023 to Tobias Lindberg: tobias.lindberg@nordicom.gu.se
Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (7,000–9,000 words) will be notified by e-mail after the extended abstracts have been assessed. All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers. All submissions are submitted to Similarity Check – a Crossref service utilising iThenticate text comparison software to detect text-recycling or self-plagiarism.
Visit Crossref to learn more about Similarity Check
After the initial submission and review process, manuscripts that are accepted for publication must adhere to our guidelines upon final manuscript delivery. You may choose to use our template to assist you in correctly formatting your manuscript.
Download a manuscript template (docx, 31 kB)
Read the full instructions for authors
About the journal
Nordicom Review (est. 1980) is an international peer-reviewed journal that provides a dedicated forum for articles that contribute to a wider understanding of media, mediated communication, and journalism in the Nordic region. This includes research on the Nordic countries as well as research with relevance for the Nordic context. Nordicom Review is published by Nordicom, a centre for Nordic media and communication research at the University of Gothenburg, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
All articles are published Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which allows for non-commercial, non-derivative types of reuse and sharing with proper attribution. Authors retain copyright.
Nordicom Review is included in the top quartile for Communication journals in the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR).
Read more about the journal here
References
Craufurd Smith, R., Klimkiewicz, B., & Ostling, A. (2021). Media ownership transparency in Europe: Closing the gap between European aspiration and domestic reality. European Journal of Communication, 36(6), 547–562. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323121999523
Flew, T., & Wilding, D. (2021). The turn to regulation in digital communication: The ACCC’s digital platforms inquiry and Australian media policy. Media, Culture & Society, 43(1), 48–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720926044
Flew, T. (2021). Regulating platforms. John Wiley & Sons.
Meese, J. (2021). Journalism policy across the Commonwealth: Partial answers to public problems. Digital Journalism, 9(3), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1835514
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