Special Issue Call: The Platformization of News

Today Digital Journalism announced the call for the upcoming special issue on platformization, which is edited by Taina Bucher (Oslo University), Caitlin Petre (Rutgers School of Communication and Information), Aske Kammer, (Danish School of Media and Journalism), Mette Bengtsson (Roskilde University) and Jannie Møller Hartley (Roskilde University).

"We are very excited about this special issue and we look forward to reading the abstracts, as we find it highly pertinent to have more research that engages with this topic. In DataPublics we see platforms and digital infrastructures in general key drivers in the datafication processes that we see in today's society, which affect both the media landscape and the formation of publics. We, therefore, look forward to getting new insight to this corner of our overall project as well," says DataPublics PI Jannie Møller Hartley.  

The special issue will explore the ways in which platforms affect the business models of journalism, its distribution systems, and the values embedded in news organisations.

Ultimately, the special issue aims to understand the shifting role of journalism within an evolving platformized media system that has become increasingly complex and contested. We welcome contributions related (but not limited) to topics such as:

• Theoretical conceptualizations: How can we understand and explain these transformations theoretically?
• Methodology: How can we methodologically approach the entanglement publisher and platforms, especially given that the innerworkings of platform companies and technologies are often inaccessible to outside researchers?
• Algorithms and data-driven logics: How do the values and underlying assumptions of algorithmic operations on platforms compare to those of news organizations?
• Infrastructures: How are platforms involved in news distribution infrastructures, and what are the consequences for journalism and publics?
• Business models: How are data flows gathered by platforms changing the news media industry’s relation to audiences? How are platform logics informing in-house personalisation projects and other digital innovation projects?
• Reporting and work routines: How do platform logics change news work, journalistic practices and working conditions, and news values?
• Publics: How do processes of platformatization change audiences’ news consumption,  public connection, and how publics are envisioned?
• Audience practices: How do platform logics change audiences’ practices and agency?
• Comparative research: What do these transformations look like across countries, media systems, media organizations, beats, and/or audiences?

The deadline for abstract submission is August 1st and the deadline for full papers is December 6th.