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Next Tuesday at 3:30pm ET! "Oral Histories of Mobile Communication" screening and Q&A
by Ogden, Claire 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Hello all, Please join us next Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 3:30pm ET for the launch of the ICA-sponsored Oral Histories of Mobile Communication project<https://camd.northeastern.edu/events/oral-histories-of-mobile-communication…>! This hybrid event will be held at Northeastern University's Center for Transformative Media<https://camd.northeastern.edu/center-for-transformative-media/> in Boston and on Zoom. More details are below my signature. Register here <https://northeastern.zoom.us/meeting/register/WSIMP4vkS5m8VNHLNq1TOA#/regis…> for the Zoom link, or here<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oral-histories-of-mobile-communication-screeni…> <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oral-histories-of-mobile-communication-screeni…> to attend in-person. Cheers, Claire Ogden Communications & Administrative Specialist Center for Transformative Media Northeastern University ~ Screening and Panel Discussion: Oral Histories of Mobile Communication Date: Tuesday, Sept. 22 Time: 3:30pm ET Moderators: Meryl Alper (in-person) & Ragan Glover (online) In-person Panelists: Jeffrey Boase<https://jboase.com/>, Adriana de Souza e Silva<https://camd.northeastern.edu/people/adriana-de-souza-e-silva/>, Lee Humphreys<https://cals.cornell.edu/people/lee-humphreys>, James Katz<https://www.bu.edu/com/profile/james-e-katz/> Online Panelists: Scott W. Campbell<https://comm.osu.edu/people/campbell.2844>, Rich Ling, Leopoldina Fortunati How has the mobile phone impacted our lives? The Oral Histories of Mobile Communication<https://www.icamobile.org/history-project> project documents the foundational years of the field through video interviews with key scholars who shaped its development. Launched to capture the insights of pioneering researchers from the 1990s and early 2000s, this project preserves the intellectual history of mobile communication, offering firsthand accounts of its evolution, key debates, and transformative moments. In this launch event, participants will be able to watch a short film with key moments of the project’s interviews and participate in a lively round table discussion with foundational scholars in the field.

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UK-IE Digital Humanities Association Regional Event Dublin
by Jenny McHugh 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Hi all, *Apologies for cross-posting!* Hope you're well. I'm just getting in touch to share that our first Regional Event, in collaboration with DARIAH-IE, will take place on 4 March 2027 at the Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, from 10:30 to 16:00. Please share widely with your networks! This one-day workshop will bring together practitioners, researchers, and academics working in digital arts and humanities across Ireland. Hosted by DARIAH-IE, Ireland's national node of the pan-European DARIAH infrastructure, the event will also mark the first meeting of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association (UK-IE DHA) Regional Event Series. The day is designed to: * Introduce the affordances of engagement with the UK-IE DHA and DARIAH-IE * Provide opportunities to hear from and speak with colleagues across the island * Share knowledge across higher education institutions * Encourage participation in DARIAH Working Groups and UK-IE DHA Community Interest Groups * Invite discussions on training needs, collaborations, and future events Whether you are well established in the field or new to digital arts and humanities, this networking event will offer a valuable opportunity to connect with colleagues and help shape the future of both the UK-IE DHA and DARIAH-IE. Call for Papers, programme and registration details will follow. Please keep an eye on the event page for updates: https://digitalhumanities-uk-ie.org/regional-event-dublin/. For queries, you can either contact us at uk-ie.digitalhumanities(a)sas.ac.uk<mailto:uk-ie.digitalhumanities@sas.ac.uk> or joan.y.murphy(a)tcd.ie<mailto:joan.y.murphy@tcd.ie>. All the best, Jenny McHugh Community & Advocacy Manager UK-Ireland Digital Humanities Association

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Hello, we are the new editors at New Media & Society
by Christian Katzenbach 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Colleagues, some of you might have noticed this already, but we finally wanted to announce this publicly now: We, Christian Katzenbach and Crystal Abidin, have taken over the role of Editors-in-Chief of New Media & Society. After 30 years at the helm of NMS, Steve Jones stepped down as EIC in June this year. Steve has led the rapid growth of our disciplines and fields through NMS, ICA, AoIR, and other avenues through his advocacy, leadership, and mentorship, leaving extremely big shoes to fill – so big, that in his place, a new Editor team of 8 has taken over to continue Steve’s work and legacy at NMS. Early this year, Despina Chronaki, Blake Hallinan, Marko Skoric, Harsh Taneja, and Panayiota Tsatsou started as Associate Editors, and now we are stepping in as EICs aided by Editorial Assistant Alessa Eggeling. We know that many of you have noticed frictions and substantial delay in the journal operation over the past months. The transition period at the journal was much longer and more complicated than anticipated. We must still ask for your patience as we develop new routines, recalibrate backend processes in partnership with SAGE to mitigate the multiplying issues arising from AI use, and work through a backlog of close to a thousand manuscripts at various stages of review. It is arduous work, but we are working as best as we can, and have appreciated the kind understanding and words already streaming in from authors. We believe that NMS is the primary space for our multidisciplinary community to exchange about social dynamics of media and technology change. We are committed to preserve and to further develop this role of the journal in a rapidly evolving context, building on how we understand the journal’s key principles: Multidisciplinary Perspective (value diversity of perspectives, but ask for field specificity) Rigourous on Concepts and Methods (sound articulation and reflection) Focus on Change and Dynamics (contribution to understand dynamics of media and social change) International Community (value diversity, reflect specificity) High-level of Reflection (explicit limitations, situatedness) We look forward to continuing the conversation with you in the next months and years. Please also take a moment to read Steve’s farewell in NMS if you haven’t already done so: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448261451618. (Please note that we are currently not accepting special issue proposals.) Best, Christian and Crystal

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Report: Creative Labour in Rupture? GenAI & Future Research Directions
by Tom Divon 14 Sep '26

14 Sep '26

Dear friends, As many of us prepare to gather again for AoIR 2026 (yay!), we wanted to revisit a conversation that began at AoIR 2025 in Brazil and will continue in Mexico, now captured in our report: *Creative Labour in Rupture? GenAI & Future Research Directions.* Last October, we brought together 50 scholars for our AoIR pre-conference centered on Creative Labour in Rupture to think collectively about what GenAI is changing across creative labour and cultural production, how we might study those transformations, and what questions should guide the next phase of research. The report (linked below) opens with provocations from Arturo Arriagada, Robert Prey, Alessandro Gandini, Daphne Idiz, Thomas Poell, David Nieborg, Godwin Simon, Jiaru Tang, Caitlin Petre, Rafael Grohmann, M.E. Luka, and Tom Divon. It then brings together the voices of all 50 scholars in the room through three lenses: Ruptures, Reactions, and Resistances. The report is a shared baby of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF), DigiLabour, and the Content Creator Scholars Network (CCSN). We hope it can serve as a resource for any of you who wish to carry these conversations forward, for research, teaching, and for thinking together about where scholarship on GenAI and creative labour needs to go next. And to make that continuation more practical, we have also built a collaborative reading list on GenAI and creative labour, drawing on the references and intellectual traditions brought into the room in Rio. The list is designed to stay open and evolve with the field, and we warmly invite you to add your own work, reports, or anything you’ve read and haven’t been able to shut up about. Read and use the full report: Creative Labour in Rupture? GenAI & Future Research Directions - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1srOcSNmdy4n_vFefM4Cfgu5I3zGObPUd/view?usp=… Explore and contribute to the living reading list: GenAI & Creative Labour | Reading List - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VWE5Bp9_92bjE4dIdO5rpwJkkcBC6P8UR2wXL2F… Check out our sites (we provide more useful resources there!) *CCSN* - https://www.ccsn.site/ | *Instagram * https://www.instagram.com/weareccsn/ | *Newsletter* https://shorturl.at/vez3a *DigiLabour* - https://digilabour.com.br/ | *Instagram* https://www.instagram.com/digilabour/ *CLCF* - https://creativelabourcriticalfutures.ca/ Thank you, and see you (very!) soon in México <3 Tom Divon, Rafael Grohmann, M.E. Luka & Zoe Glatt -- *Tom Divon* Creators & Platforms R*esearcher* Dept. of Communication & Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC, Herzliya Tel: +972-547-532681 [image: Twitter] <https://twitter.com/TomDivon>[image: Instagram] <https://www.instagram.com/divon.tom/>[image: Facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/tom.divon> Website: https://tomdivon.com/ Co-Founder: The Content Creator Scholars Network <https://www.ccsn.site/> *Publications*: >> Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance in TikTok #Challenges <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051231157607> >> #JewishTikTok: The JewToks' Fight against Antisemitism <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359548581_JewishTikTok> >> Serious TikTok: Can You Learn About the Holocaust in 60 Seconds? <https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/digitalholocaustmemory/2022/03/24/can-you-lear…> >> Playful Trauma: TikTok Creators and the Use of the Platformed Body in Times of War <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051241269281> >> Platform gaslighting: A user-centric insight into social media corporate communications of content moderation <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/29768624241303109> >> The unsolicited algorithm: unveiling gendered harms and (non)consent in apple iOS features <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2024.2433683?src=> >> The sound of disinformation: TikTok, computational propaganda, and the invasion of Ukraine <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448241251804?icid=int.sj-full…> >> Youthful Platform Commemoration: TikTok as a Frontier for Holocaust Education and Memory <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383957738_Youthful_Platform_Commem…>

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Call for AoIR Preconference: In Defense of the Commons
by Fenwick Mckelvey 14 Sep '26

14 Sep '26

Sending a last reminder as we're finalizing the schedule. Please email us before Sept. 25 for consideration. As one of the organizers, I am very interested in talking to folks interested in AI, the Commons, and Open Weight Models, acknowledging big differences between the three. Details below: October 14, 2026 *AoIR Preconference*: In Defense of the Commons *Workshop facilitators:* Zach McDowell, Fenwick McKelvey, Matt Vetter As the Internet becomes just a data dump for the next AI model, there is a growing demand to articulate the loss and what's at stake over the Internet's future. We argue the commons is a critical, normative concept that needs to be reasserted. Our workshop aims to build capacity in the development of new theory and practice through the *The Critical Commons Research Network* (CCRN), an international research collective focused on examining the sharing of digital public knowledge through infrastructural, political-economic, policy lenses, and other critical approaches. This network connects researchers, creating opportunities for mentorship and collaboration around the (digital) commons. The workshop aims to: 1. Coordinate research on Internet commons and other shared services online, including Wikipedia, the Creative Commons, open AI models, and emerging hardware or peer-to-peer server collectives; 2. Advance new theories of the commons as a normative concept for internet studies; 3. Advocate for alternative forms of resistance against new enclosures of the commons through the Critical Commons Network. A key function of the preconference is to coordinate researchers addressing the loss and threats to current Internet commons. We aim to gather 20 to 30 researchers working along themes around the commons for a focused workshop articulating a plan for the network and to coordinate global research on commons theory and practice. We invite participants to submit a brief biography, description of their research project, and relevant publications. The half-day workshop will be organized around three 60-minute thematic discussions developed from participant responses. Selected participants will be invited to give brief lightning talks to animate discussion. We anticipate themes to include: - Wikipedia: Fondly known as “the last best place on the Internet,” Wikipedia was founded on the utopian promise of a decentralized, collaborative, and nonproprietary model for creating and sharing “the sum of all human knowledge." Wikipedia remains a shining example of the digital “commons” — repositories of knowledge and information that have become infrastructural layers that support the Internet as we know it. - The future of free, libre, and open source collaboration: Beyond Wikipedia and its sister Wikimedia projects, the digital commons also includes open-source software projects (Debian, Pubpub), shadow libraries that circulate publicly funded research, and interoperable interfaces (such as RSS feeds and APIs). These institutional mechanisms for content, whether knowledge, data, multimedia, or code, eschew exclusive traditional property rights in favor of social governance, harnessing diverse, non-market motivations to create shared public goods. - AI Commons: AI drives new forms of extraction and enclosure of the commons through large language models (LLMs) that repurpose volunteer labor and open data in ways that may undermine the sustainability of the projects themselves. Open models, distributed model interfaces, and agentic-human collaborations function as both an alternative and a threat to growing empires of AI. Can open AI actually mitigate these negative externalities for the commons? - Theory and application of “traditional” commons systems (forestry, fisheries, etc) applying towards digital systems. The discussions will be recorded and collected as a report and included in a forthcoming special issue in *communication +1*. Whenever possible we will attribute contributions to participants, but participants should expect their contributions to inform these outputs. We encourage critical engagement with commons and commons theory. The ideal of the commons as an open, equitable, and self-regulating space exists under constant pressure, for many reasons. Internally, these projects are not the "mythical egalitarian space" they are often described as. They are characterized by power asymmetries, systemic biases, and complex bureaucracies that can exclude newcomers and marginalized communities who may wish to negotiate and challenge established norms. Half-day for short workshopping to ensure there is time for networking activities. Please submit by September 25th (earlier the better): 1. Your name and affiliation; 2. A 250 biography and/or description of your research program; 3. A 250-word interest statement on your idea that you’d like to develop and discuss Participants will be selected through a peer-review, and announced soon thereafter. *Please send CFP emails to: criticalcommonsresearchnetwork(a)gmail.com <criticalcommonsresearchnetwork(a)gmail.com>*

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[AoIR HQ] AoIR Merch is Here!
by Association Coordinator 12 Sep '26

12 Sep '26

Hi AoIR Community! We're super excited to announce the launch of our merchandise shop, ahead of this year's conference in Mexico City. Check out hoodies and shirts designed specifically for this year's conference, a collection of archive merch that replicates items from our very first merch store all the way back in 2006, and more. Shop now at shop.aoir.org<http://shop.aoir.org>. We ship domestically and internationally. Best, Emerson (she/her) AoIR Communications and Membership Coordinator ac(a)aoir.org<mailto:ac@aoir.org> Looking for Michelle? After nine years, Michelle has officially stepped down from her position at AOIR. I'm Emerson, and I'll be stepping in to continue her work. As I'm sure anyone familiar with Michelle knows, I have big shoes to fill, and I appreciate your patience as I get up to speed!

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[AoIR HQ] Announcing the AoIR2026 Book Award Winner
by Association Coordinator 10 Sep '26

10 Sep '26

Dear AoIR members, We are pleased to announce the winner of the AoIR2026 Book Award: Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms By Dr. Amelica Acker This historically grounded monograph offers a compelling account of the transformation of data archives—from pre-digital collections to privately owned, cloud-first infrastructures increasingly accessed through mobile applications—with a particular focus on archival power. Drawing on original archival and historical research, Acker connects the etymology and history of the archive to contemporary practices of data collection, storage, networking, and access. Through its focus on “archival power,” Archiving Machines brings media history, infrastructure studies, archival studies, and critical data studies into productive conversation. This historical and conceptual approach illuminates how infrastructures can disempower both the public and institutions by limiting their access to the information they create. Acker’s rich analytical schema therefore not only explains the transformation of archival power, but also clarifies the choices confronting society as technology continues to evolve. In this way, the monograph provides a valuable bridge between the history of data and our emerging data and AI future. And announcing our runner up: Healthy Users: The Governance of Social Media Well-being By Dr. Niall Docherty This timely and conceptually incisive book challenges the assumption that social media well-being can be secured through individual “healthy” choices concerning screen time, mindfulness, and self-discipline. By demonstrating how this discourse of personal responsibility obscures the structural conditions of platform capitalism, Healthy Users shifts attention from individual behavior to the interfaces, commercial interests, institutional power, and cultural norms that shape peoples lived experiences of social media. It situates this individualization of responsibility within longer critical debates about responsibilities, self-management, and moral regulation, providing a rich theoretical framework for understanding contemporary digital well-being discourse. This intervention is especially pertinent amid growing political concern about social media addiction and harm, proposals for legal age restrictions, and the expanding role of technology in healthcare. Although critical platform studies and digital well-being research have previously recognized the individualization of responsibility, Healthy Users brings these insights together into a distinctive account of how the “healthy user” is constructed and governed. In doing so, the monograph reveals the broader systems of power and value that make such solutions appear both necessary and natural. Please join us in sharing a big congratulations to Dr. Acker and Dr. Docherty. About This Year's Committee and Selection Process We extend a huge thank you to this year's committee for all their work over the last few months. The international committee was comprised of Drs. Jun Liu (Chair), Nancy Baym, Giota Alevizou, Marco Bastos, JG McNutt, and Gina Sipley. The committee followed a two-stage process. In Stage One, members were divided into two review groups. Each group reviewed its assigned slate of books and selected the top three for further consideration. In Stage Two, all committee members read the six shortlisted books and determined the final ranking to select the winner and runner-up. Committee members evaluated submissions based on scholarly quality, conceptual innovation, and contribution to internet research and the AoIR community. Best, Emerson (she/her) AoIR Communications and Membership Coordinator ac(a)aoir.org Looking for Michelle? After nine years, Michelle has officially stepped down from her position at AOIR. I'm Emerson, and I'll be stepping in to continue her work. As I'm sure anyone familiar with Michelle knows, I have big shoes to fill, and I appreciate your patience as I get up to speed!

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Impacts of AI on Multilingual and Multiracial Democracy (Sept 28, 2026, 9am to 2pm ET)
by Thakur, Dhanaraj 10 Sep '26

10 Sep '26

Hi all, Given the importance of multilingual large language models to political and other communications this event might be relevant to this group. We are co-organizing an in-person symposium in Washington DC with an option for remote participation. Please join us! Impacts of AI on Multilingual and Multiracial Democracy <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/impacts-of-ai-on-multilingual-and-multiracial-…> The Multiracial Democracy Project and the Bernard Center for Law & Technology at the George Washington University Law School along with the Center for Democracy & Technology are co-hosting a half-day symposium that will examine the capabilities and limitations of multilingual large language models; how these technologies affect civil rights, opportunity, and dignity; and the policy and governance approaches needed to support a multilingual and multiracial democracy. We will explore these issues with two panel led discussions: Panel 1 - Equal Access and the Limitations of Multilingual AI models: - David Broniatowski — Professor, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering and Computer Science (by courtesy); Deputy Director, NIST-NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law and Society (TRAILS), George Washington University - Camille Harris — Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of San Francisco - Aditya Vashistha — Assistant Professor of Information Science; Director, Cornell Global AI Initiative, Cornell University - Gloria Washington — Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Howard University. - Aliya Bhatia, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Democracy & Technology (Moderator) Panel 2 - Advancing Language Equity and Civil Rights with LLMs - Roy Austin — Director, Howard Law Artificial Intelligence Initiative, Howard University School of Law - Roberta Braga — Founder and Executive Director, Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas - Elizabeth Laird — Director, Equity in Civic Technology, Center for Democracy & Technology - Thema Monroe-White — Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Policy, Schar School of Policy and Government and Department of Computer Science, George Mason University - Dhanaraj Thakur, Director, Fair Technology Initiative, Multiracial Democracy Project, George Washington University Law School (moderator) More details and registration information are here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/impacts-of-ai-on-multilingual-and-multiracial-… take care, Dhanaraj -- Dhanaraj Thakur (he/him) Director, Fair Technology Initiative, Multiracial Democracy Project <https://www.law.gwu.edu/multiracial-democracy-project> The George Washington University Law School dhanaraj.thakur(a)law.gwu.edu +12029940287

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New Book: Kids, KidTech and Digital Capitalism
by Natalie H. Coulter 10 Sep '26

10 Sep '26

Dear AoIR Colleagues and Friends I am excited to share the launch of my new book from Routledge, “Kids, KidTech, and Digital Capitalism: The Fight for Our Digital Futures”.<https://www.routledge.com/Kids-KidTech-and-Digital-Capitalism-The-Fight-for…> The book is available as an Open Access publication<https://www.routledge.com/Kids-KidTech-and-Digital-Capitalism-The-Fight-for…>. If you are interested in teaching the book in your class this year, I am open to guest lectures and call-ins and would love to speak to your students. About the book: Uncovering the workings of the KidTech industry, this book explores how capitalism operates in digital spaces that are geared toward children and how this impacts children’s everyday lives. For internet researchers, the book offers a critical look at how platforms, datafication, and digital capitalism are shaping children’s experiences and the broader social and political worlds of the internet they inhabit. Conversational and personal in approach, the book uses observational anecdotes to illuminate broader theoretical insights into children’s changing relationships with digital media and digital capitalism. Ch1: Introduction - Digital Kids, Digital Worlds Ch2: Born to Shop? - A History of the Youth Market Ch3: Fun and Free - Theorizing KidTech and the Workings of Digital Capitalism Ch4: Kids as Data - The First Fully Datafied Generation Ch5: What’s the Difference? - Play as Work in Digital Playspaces Ch6: Playing in the Moated Walled Garden - KidTech, Roblox, and the Metaverse Ch7: Digital Kids, Digital Citizenships, and Rethinking Our Digital Futures Biography: Natalie Coulter is an Associate Professor in Communication and Media Studies at York University. Her research focuses on young people's digital cultures, children's media, girls' culture, and digital capitalism. She is co-author of Media and Communication in Canada (2025) and author of Tweening the Girl (2014). ENDORSEMENTS Coulter provides a compelling and critical examination of the colonization of children by the lucrative KidTech industry, which encompasses an array of digital platforms for play and learning, fueled by Big Tech’s deep capitalization and design of obtuse infrastructures that envelope and construct the datafied child. From the origins of the youth marketplace in the Victorian Era to today’s wildly popular Roblox metaverse platform, Coulter demonstrates the stakes of this insidious mode of unregulated digital capitalism, which troubles children’s digital and privacy rights. Leslie Regan Shade Professor Emerita Faculty of Information, University of Toronto In an engaging style, Natalie Coulter ushers readers through the complex, dynamic and oh-so-consequential world of KidTech, from its “pre-tech” origins in the 19th century to the ubiquity and seeming boundlessness of contemporary Web3 immersion. In the process, Kids, KidTech and Digital Capitalism invites critical engagement with emergent—and ever-marketized—notions of children and childhood that are curated to fit the embedded logics of digital capitalism. Coulter sprinkles humor throughout her serious challenges to academics and non-academics alike to rethink conceptions of rights, sovereignty, play and consumption in light of the ongoing construction of a moated, walled garden of KidTech. --Daniel Thomas Cook, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University—Camden and author of The Commodification of Childhood Natalie Coulter, PhD (she/her) • Associate Professor • Communication and Media Studies • York University https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/ncoulter/ * Check out my new book: Kids, KidTech and Digital Capitalism<https://www.routledge.com/Kids-KidTech-and-Digital-Capitalism-The-Fight-for…> * Series Editor: on the lookout for new books: Mediated Youth Series, Peter Lang<https://www.peterlang.com/series/my> * Co-authored textbook: Media and Communication in Canada<https://learninglink.oup.com/access/gasher10e>

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CfP - Familiar Feeds, Unfamiliar Politics: Everyday Activism on Instagram (Special Issue for Digital Culture & Society)
by Delia Dumitrica 09 Sep '26

09 Sep '26

Dear AoIR colleagues, If you are working on topics related to political activism and Instagram, and you are interested in approaching these topics from the perspective of everyday life theories, please consider submitting to the special issue below. We are inviting 300 word abstracts by December 1, 2026. For additional questions about the special issue, feel free to contact me directly. CALL FOR PAPERS, Special Issue for Digital Culture & Society Familiar Feeds, Unfamiliar Politics: Everyday Activism on Instagram This special issue approaches Instagram activism from the perspective of everyday life (de Certeau, 1984; Gardiner, 2000; Lefebvre, 2004), foregrounding the digital creation and consumption of activism through the lens of the routine, the repetitive, and the mundane. With 3 billion monthly active users in 2025 (Statista, 2026), Instagram has become an important social media platform for entertainment and social connection, but also for encountering and discovering political life (Faveiro et al., 2026). As the visual, affective, and commercial logics of this platform come with opportunities and challenges for political activism, we are interested in what seemingly ordinary acts of posting, scrolling, and engaging with digital content can reveal about the reconfigurations of contemporary political imaginaries. The special issue thus asks: How does the political infuse daily life through the mundane routines of Instagram use? Inspired by Lefebvre's suggestion that "the strangest things are often the most trivial" (1991, p. 13), the special issue is interested in what makes the embedding of Instagram political activism in everyday practices seem trivial, why that may appear to be strange – and to whom. Political activism is broadly understood here as sustained actions meant to advocate and mobilize for social change, which may fall anywhere along the conservative/liberal spectrum. Furthermore, the special issue recognizes contemporary transmedia practices among activists and social movements, in which Instagram is an analytical starting point for investigating everyday digital activism (Caldeira, 2025; Dumitrica & Hockin-Boyers, 2023; Gonzalez et al., 2024; Hannouch & Milstein, 2025; Loyola-Hernandéz, 2026; Yuen & Tang, 2023); contributions are free to pursue connections with analogue and other digital sites of content production and consumption. The following questions underpin the special issue’s interests: What kinds of political imaginaries, attachments, and subjectivities emerge when activism is not encountered primarily in organized spaces of deliberation or movement-building, but in the ordinary consumption of Instagram content? How does the political come to inhabit the routines of everyday digital life, and how do these routines, in turn, reshape what politics can look and feel like? Which power relations are naturalized in this process, leaving them outside the field of contestation? Topics may include (but are not limited to): * everyday political mediation on Instagram; * activism, visibility and platformed legitimacy; * everyday temporalities and the rhythms of activism; * the importance of place and space in political activism on the platform; * the relation between visibility and submerged networks; * the commodification of political commitment; * algorithm-aware tactics of the everyday; * the influencer/activist hybrid and the monetisation of causes; * invisible labour, care and exhaustion. We welcome different methodological approaches sharing an interest in critically interrogating the intersection between everyday life, Instagram use, and political activism. Submission process Digital Culture & Society is a refereed, international journal, fostering discussion about how digital technologies, platforms and applications reconfigure daily lives and practices. It offers a forum for critical analysis and inquiries into digital media theory. The special issue is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2028. If interested, please submit a 300 words abstract with a clear description of the theoretical framing, research design and connection to the special issue’s focus to familiarfeeds.submissions(a)gmail.com<mailto:familiarfeeds.submissions@gmail.com> by December 1, 2026. Key dates * December 1, 2026: Abstract submisison * December 15, 2026: Editors invite full-paper submsisions based on selected abstracts * April 15, 2027: Full-papers submission * July 15, 2027: First round of review * September 15, 2027: Second round of review * December 15, 2027: Completion of copy-editing and submission of the final manuscript to the publisher Special issue editors Dr. Delia Dumitrica is an Associate Professor in Political Communication and Digital Activism in the Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focuses on the intersection between digital technologies and protest communication, social movements, and activism. Her work has appeared in journals such as New Media & Society; Media and Communication; Information, Communication & Society; European Journal of Communication; The International Journal of Communication; Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies; Media, Culture & Society. Alessia Pensabene is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at Scuola Normale Superiore. Her research focuses on feminist content creators on Instagram as emerging political actors in the digital public sphere, with a focus on the possibilities and limits of platform-based activism and the ways in which visibility itself functions as both a resource and a constraint for contemporary political action. References Caldeira, S. P. (2025). (Re)sharing feminisms: Re-sharing Instagram Stories as everyday feminist practices. New Media & Society, 27(7), 4265-4284. de Certeau, M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life. University of California Press. Dumitrica, D., & Hockin-Boyers, H. (2023). Slideshow activism on Instagram: constructing the political activist subject. Information, Communication & Society, 26(16), 3318–3336. Faverio, M., Park, E., & Gottfried, J. (2026, April 15). Teens’ experiences on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/04/15/teens-experiences-on-tiktok… Gonzalez, A., Schmuck, D. & Vandenbosch, L. (2024) Posting and framing politics: a content analysis of celebrities’, athletes’, and influencers’ Instagram political content. Information, Communication & Society 27(8): 1605-1627. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2023.2285495 Hannouch, B., & Milstein, T. (2025). Activating Ecocentrism: How Young Women Environmental Activists Produce Identity on Instagram. Environmental Communication, 19(2), 198–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2024.2376697 Lefebvre, H. (1991). Critique of Everyday Life, vol. I. Verso. Loyola-Hernández. L. (2026) Al Glitter de Guerra: cyborg movidas, Instagram and feminist protest in Mexico. Third World Quarterly 47(2), 344-360. Statista. (2026). Number of Instagram users worldwide from 2013 to 2025 (in millions) [Graph], January 7. https://www.statista.com/statistics/183585/instagram-number-of-global-users/ Yuen, S., & Tang, G. (2023). Instagram and social capital: youth activism in a networked movement. Social Movement Studies, 22(5–6), 706–727. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2021.2011189

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