Apologies for reposting as the previous post was sent in incorrect format. Thank you! Online Media and Global Communication, a Scopus-indexed journal Call for Papers – Special Issue Global Diaspora and Social Media Submission Deadline: August 4, 2025 Anticipated Publication: Spring 2026 Editors of the Special Issue: Xi Cui – College of Charleston, USA Sumin Zhao – Edinburgh University, UK Social media platforms play an essential role in the formation and maintenance of global diaspora communities, enabling dispersed members to maintain cross-border connections, negotiate collective identities, and mobilize around shared meanings and histories. This special issue builds upon foundational scholarship on digital diasporas while advancing new theoretical frameworks to understand contemporary social media practices among diaspora communities. We seek research that critically examines how social media mediates diasporic experiences through identity construction, political participation, language and culture preservation, and transnational social and economic exchanges. We encourage submissions that theorize the evolving relationship between social media and diaspora engagement in an era of platformization and rising anti-globalization sentiment and geopolitical tensions worldwide. We are also interested in research exploring personal experiences of diaspora members, including the negotiation of ‘old’ and ‘new’ identities, emotional responses to separation and reunion, psychological well-being, and everyday social media practices. Studies investigating how emotions like nostalgia, hope, and belonging are articulated through social media, as well as research on how different platforms shape cognition and memory among diaspora individuals, will make valuable contributions. The special issue aims to cover diverse methodological approaches that capture the complexity of diaspora social media communication, including (digital) ethnography, (critical) discourse analysis, quantitative survey, content analysis, as well as research utilizing computational tools. We particularly welcome mixed-methods research that combines these approaches to provide multidimensional perspectives on how social media is transforming diaspora experiences in transnational contexts. We also encourage works that explore diaspora communities that are understudied and underrepresented in current literature. The special issue will address, but not be limited to, the following topics: * Identity expression and negotiation on social media * Contestation and construction of collective memory on social media * Political participation in home and/or host societies through social media * Transnational cultural interaction mediated by diaspora’s social media uses * Social media and viral events for diasporic communities * Diasporic labor and social media platform * Diasporic communities in the global south * Mis- and dis-information on social media among diasporic communities * Algorithmic moderation of diasporic information flows on social media * Psychological processes of diasporas’ emotions, attitudes, and well-being * Surveillance, censorship, and resistance regarding diasporic social media uses * Longitudinal and comparative studies of diasporic social media uses * New discursive resources such as meme and AI-generated contents * For paper format, please refer to the OMGC citation style with structured abstract at https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/omgc/html, click under “Submit” * Manuscript text length should be within 7,500 words without references, tables, and figures. Exceptions can be made for manuscripts with complex research designs and mixed methods studies. * Submit manuscript to https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/omgc, select Special issue: Global Diaspora and Social Media * Please direct all inquiries to OMGC@shisu.edu.cn<mailto:OMGC@shisu.edu.cn>