Call for Papers

How special issues work?

When an article arrives, it is checked to ensure it meets the minimum formal requirements. Once these are met, the editorial team sends the text to the coordinators of the issue. These coordinators vary for each issue; they are the ones who propose and organize the issue, and their names are published in the Call for Papers. Once the special issue coordinators have reviewed the articles, they decide on their acceptance or rejection based on whether they fit the topic and meet the minimum quality standards. After the articles have passed this initial screening, they are sent to external reviewers who conduct a detailed review. Among the articles that pass this second screening, the issue coordinators choose 6 articles that will be published. After this third and final screening, authors receive the feedback from the reviewers and the issue coordinators.

In addition to the monographic section, the miscellaneous section is open all year round. The articles accepted in this section are published every two years: January and July.

Online submissions

 

 

MONOGRAPHIC: Media content flow on diseases and digital health

Deadline for Submissions: March 15th, 2025

Publishing Date:  July 15th, 2025

 

Monographic Coordinators:

Sebastián Sánchez-Castillo (Universitat de València, España) sebastian.sanchez@uv.es ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3751-6425 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=PxPJGpAAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

Manuel Armayones Ruiz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, España) marmayones@uoc.edu 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6345-8711

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=r_Q9vzQAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

Sandra Meléndez-Labrador (Universidad de Santander, Colombia) observatorio.obladic@gmail.com

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6856-5361

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=NShTRC8AAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

 

Abstract

Medicine and health are the second subject, after food, that most interest Spaniards according to the 2020 survey on the Social Perception of Science and Technology conducted by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). In 2020, the survey by the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (ONSTSI) showed that 7 out of 10 Spanish people used the Internet to find out about health.

Digital health or eHealth is described as the use of ICT in the health sector to provide it with innovative resources that enable more efficient management and more optimal diagnosis, in short, better patient care. The interest in digital health reaches 58% of the member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO), as they have specific strategies for the digitization of health. The eHealth ecosystem is a complex public access mechanism that is complemented, among others, by the Internet of Things, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, 5G networks and technologies, Big Data analysis, etc. These procedures make it possible to apply new methods, means, tools and channels that have an impact on a series of benefits for citizens, with information and communication being key to structuring this entire process.

Health information in the digital sphere, and specifically in social networks, is not only useful for people affected by a pathology, but also for improving interaction between professionals and the public. For more than a decade, social networks have been used to improve knowledge about a specific disease from the patient's perspective. Practitioners have seen in social networks an opportunity to create online communities to interact and discuss such diseases in the absence of effective clinical and diagnostic procedures, as well as due to the difficulty of obtaining data through standard procedures in the case of rare diseases, with a limited number of patients. The usefulness of social networks for public health is not only based on their horizontal communication power; also the use of automated traffic can serve to verify patterns and behaviours associated with risk pathology and the discovery of isolated phenotypes in rare diseases.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (2013) established six general benefits of social networks for health communication: increased interaction with other users; more personalised information; increased accessibility; emotional support for users; public health surveillance and, finally, the potential to influence health policies. On the other hand, several limitations were identified, mainly concerning the lack of privacy, heterogeneity and veracity of information.

Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have become a source of knowledge for both patients and doctors. They have also been useful for recognizing possible signs of illness and assessing quality of life among users.  Unlike other platforms, on TikTok the affected person usually makes their illness explicit through their own personal, personalized discourse, devoid of sentimentality and drama. Many young people share videos of their own illnesses in a silent, playful claim, devoid of the dramatic elements inherited from other media.

The discourse present in social networks from patients' associations and in the personal profiles of people affected by any health problem is likely to differ from that projected by the mainstream media (press, radio and television). The former could announce a series of basic, economic and care needs with a more personal and vindictive discourse, while in the more traditional media a discourse of visibility and life stories may persist.

Perhaps, from all this communicative flow in social networks, we can discover some emotional stories of overcoming, decisive and of great importance for the personal and family environment, which perhaps are not attended to by health and care policies but which can provide very valuable information both on the barriers and facilitators that families, or directly those affected, encounter to care and take care of themselves; as well as with obvious implications for the design of services by the health and social services authorities.

In the specific case of people affected by rare diseases, as a minority group they have little capacity to exert their influence on political or social issues beyond the large national organizations such as FEDER in Spain or international organizations such as EURORDIS in Europe, which although they have an impact on the common aspects of rare diseases cannot go down to the specific situations of the more than seven thousand identified diseases. Those affected by rare diseases, and specifically those affected by ultra-rare diseases, run the risk of being excluded from the main social and health discussion forums.

Social networks have proved to be a very effective collaborative tool for a large number of different pathologies affecting very few people. They have been used to exchange diagnostic processes, compare prognoses and share family experiences. They are also very useful for promoting solidarity events to raise resources and to unite families through shared common knowledge. The generation and dynamization of communities on WhatsApp has opened up a new channel and new forms of relationships that broaden the spectrum of interpersonal and group communication mediated by technologies for health-related issues.

The majority of families affected by an illness post a huge amount of data on social media. In this way, social networks become repositories of continuous and indelible information about the day-to-day life with the disease. The evaluation of certain treatments, medical advice, evolution of the clinical picture, appearance of signs, evaluation of the quality of life are common contents. They are a real opportunity to obtain data from the patient's perspective. Sometimes they are even the only sources of knowledge for both patients and doctors. Social media is also proving effective for orphan drug development, helping to pre-study the population. This increases social awareness of pathologies and plays a vital role in clinical trials in areas such as recruitment of potential patients.

In general, the aim is to make visible works that, from a critical approach to communication, address the field of health, including emerging studies on disability and studies on rare diseases. Without being limited to these, manuscripts that address some of the following thematic lines will be accepted:

  • Theoretical advances in eHealth, eHealth, Digital Health
  • Theories and methodological advances in communication and health in its entirety.
  • Social discourse of health. Traditional media and cybermedia
  • Use of social networks in social normalization and health associations
  • Social networks at the service of health and disability
  • Use of data mining in the analysis of sentiment on social networks about patients, relatives and health professionals
  • Responsibility and ethics of the communication flow on health in social networks
  • Application and use of generative AI technologies both from the point of view of health professionals and patients themselves and/or their associations
  • Analysis of barriers and facilitators reported by patients on social networks in relation to health and/or social services, as well as potential actions that can be taken to overcome these barriers.

 

LINES OF RESEARCH

  • Patient and family profiles on social networks.
  • Normalization of the social discourse of health
  • Mediatization and social discourse and health
  • Social networks and social health resources
  • Behavioral design and gamification adapted to the health field
  • Digital communities and health
  • Social media marketing and health
  • Rare diseases, disability and social media
  • Mental health and social networks
  • Intersectional issues in health (gender, race, disability, etc.)
  • Pharmaceutical culture and social media
  • Interpersonal communication on health through social media
  • Digital pedagogy in health
  • Digital disinformation, fake news and health
  • Digital influencers and health
  • Resilience, digital inclusion and health
  • Digital narratives and social media rhetoric in health
  • Health, crisis and social networks

This work is part of the R&D Project "Identification of the social and healthcare needs of patients with rare diseases: processing the communication flow in social networks", a project funded by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Employment of the Generalitat Valenciana, Spain (CIAICO/2022/188). 2023-2024. Sebastián Sánchez-Castillo & Eulalia Alonso Iglesias (Universitat de València)

 

 

MONOGRAPHIC: Artificial intelligence and communication: transformations and challenges in the digital era

Deadline for Submissions: June15th, 2025

Fecha de publicación: January 15th, 2026

 

Monographic Coordinators:

Odiel Estrada Molina, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain). odiel.estrada@uva.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0918-418X

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.cu/citations?user=NXfCGR0AAAAJ&hl=es

Elvira G. Rincón Flores, Tecnológico de Monterrey (México). elvira.rincon@tec.mx

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5957-2335

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.mx/citations?user=iY_Wd2MAAAAJ&hl=es

Juan José Mena, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain). juanjo_mena@usal.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6925-889X

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=8HCPIvYAAAAJ&hl=es

 

Introduction

This monograph explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on contemporary communication, encompassing its applications in literacy processes, marketing strategies, content creation, digital community management, and the ethical and social implications of its implementation.

In a world where AI is redefining human interactions and communication dynamics, this edition aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how these technologies are transforming media and communication ecosystems. Researchers are invited to submit innovative studies that examine AI from a communicative and educommunicative perspective, focusing on how these technologies shape the global communication landscape. This monograph fosters the creation of knowledge that integrates technological advancements with current needs and challenges in communication, education, marketing, advertising, and public relations.


Objetives

  1. Analyze how AI redefines communication dynamics in digital and media environments.
  2. Explore the relationship between AI and inclusive, personalized communication strategies.
  3. Investigate the ethical and social challenges associated with AI in communication and education.
  4. Evaluate the opportunities AI offers for innovation in content creation and dissemination.
  5. Propose training models and best practices for communicators in the use of AI.


Proposed Research Lines

  1. AI in Digital Communication Strategy: Exploration of AI algorithms to personalize messages, segment audiences, and optimize campaigns on digital platforms and social media.
  2. Immersive Communication and AI: Applications of AI in technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to transform communication experiences.
  3. Automated Journalism and Content Generation: Analysis of AI's impact on the automatic creation of news, blogs, audiovisual scripts, and other media content.
  4. Ethical and Responsible Communication: Reflection on algorithmic biases, data privacy, and transparency in AI-assisted communication.
  5. AI and Digital Communities: Study of how AI facilitates the management and dynamization of online communities, from forums to social networks.
  6. New Narrative Models in Digital Media: Research on how AI enables innovative storytelling formats in advertising and entertainment.
  7. AI and Communicative Accessibility: Use of AI-based technologies to ensure more inclusive communication, including automated translation tools, real-time subtitling, and accessibility for people with disabilities.
  8. Conversational Systems and Their Communicative Role: Evaluation of chatbots and virtual assistants as new actors in the digital communication landscape.
  9. AI and the Fight Against Misinformation: Strategies to combat fake news and promote truthful communication using artificial intelligence technologies.
  10. Future Trends in AI and Communication: Prospective scenarios on how AI will transform communication ecosystems in the coming years.