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

***CALL OPEN***

MONOGRAPHIC: Persuasive communication in video games and digital leisure: youth and the emergence of new consumption models

Deadline for Submissions: February 1st, 2026

Publishing Date: July 15th, 2026

Monographic Coordinators:

Gema Bonales Daimiel, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (España). gbonales@ucm.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2085-2203

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?hl=es&user=Ek4ok1kAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate

Sergio Gutiérrez Manjón, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (España). sergiogu@ucm.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7412-1532

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=Zv7qEVcAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

Laura Cañete Sanz, Universidad Erasmo de Róterdam (Países Bajos). canetesanz@eshcc.eur.nl

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4515-1673

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=es&authuser=1&user=HbVPWWEAAAAJ

Abstract

The video game industry has been significantly reshaped by the consolidation of the Games as a Service (GaaS) model, which promotes persistent, connected, and monetized gaming experiences. Particularly relevant among Generation Z, this phenomenon introduces new challenges within the fields of persuasive communication, advertising, and youth studies.

This special issue focuses on online video games and digital leisure platforms as key environments for social interaction, identity formation, and intensified consumption. Attention is given to the communicative, promotional, and design strategies that foster problematic behaviors such as compulsive engagement, dependency, and peer pressure, along with the critical responses emerging from academic research, public policy, and media literacy.

Contributions are expected to adopt interdisciplinary perspectives, including theoretical analyses, case studies, and empirical investigations—using netnographic, quantitative, qualitative, experimental, or data-mining methodologies. Articles may draw from fields such as media studies, communication, cultural studies, behavioral psychology, digital sociology, AI ethics, and critical technology studies.

The inclusion of approaches addressing current debates on generative artificial intelligence, biometrics, neuro-gamification, or algorithmic design in immersive environments is particularly relevant for advancing critical understanding of these technological practices.

The overarching goal is to promote ethical, inclusive, and cross-disciplinary reflection on the impact of digital entertainment on youth. In light of increasing technological complexity, it is essential to examine how the video game industry and digital leisure shape cultural imaginaries, social dynamics, and contemporary modes of consumption.

Proposed Research Lines

Games as a Service (GaaS) and evolving monetization frameworks.
Persuasive design and engagement strategies in interactive media.
The impact of digital leisure on youth identity and self-perception.
Problematic gaming behaviors and patterns of overconsumption.
Media literacy, critical play, and resistance to gamification.
In-game advertising, advergaming, microtransactions, and ethical concerns.
Gender, diversity, and accessibility in gaming and digital leisure spaces.
Video games and social platforms as arenas for youth socialization, community building, and informal learning.
Generative AI, biometrics, neuro-gamification, and emerging regulatory frameworks on immersive technologies.

***CALL OPEN***

MONOGRAPHIC: The Ecosocial Crisis in the Post-Digital Public Sphere: Narratives and Strategies in a Transforming Communication System

Deadline for Submissions: June15th, 2026

Publishing Date: January15th, 2027

Monographic Coordinators:

Daniel H. Cabrera Altieri (Universidad de Zaragoza, UNIZAR, España). danhcab@unizar.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6781-260X

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=btkfR2gAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

María Angulo Egea (Universidad de Zaragoza, UNIZAR, España). mangulo@unizar.es

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1717-2370

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BU-LNYAAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=ao

Jorge Mauricio Escobar Sarria (Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, UNAD, Colombia).jorge.escobar@unad.edu.co

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1268-0707

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

Abstract

The severity of the ecosocial crisis is evident in the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including isolated high-level depressions (DANA), rising global temperatures, floods, and record-breaking snowfall. Beyond these observable phenomena, scientific evidence on climate change supports the hypothesis of a planetary-scale ecosocial crisis.
Extractivist practices and the exploitation of nature for profit maximisation, together with dominant lifestyles—particularly in food consumption, transport, and tourism—continue to exacerbate these dynamics. Within this framework, it becomes necessary to examine how the ecosocial crisis is articulated in a hybrid media system that combines traditional media, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence. Such processes unfold within a disintermediated public sphere characterised by new communicative actors, information flows, and strategies of collective action intersecting with the ecosocial crisis.
Across traditional media and digital platforms, the ecosocial crisis has become a central issue, appearing both as specialised journalistic reporting and as disinformation and climate change denialist narratives. Here, multimodal communication operates as a discursive strategy through which disinformative content originating in closed digital environments is projected into wider public debate, contributing to polarised agendas.
In this context, political authoritarianism instrumentalises these narratives and imaginaries to steer public opinion towards extreme positions through a rhetoric that appears critical yet remains unfounded. Framed as cultural warfare, this rhetoric diverts social groups away from scientific validation and from recognising the planet’s ongoing transformation.
This special issue examines the relationship between ecosocial crisis narratives and imaginaries and the emerging post-mediatic public sphere.

Proposed Research Lines

Analyses of narratives and discourses related to the ecosocial crisis
Technological transformations of the public sphere and their professional, corporate, and community appropriations
Alternative and activist communication practices addressing ecosocial issues
Strategies of traditional media in the context of the ecosocial transition
Emerging narrative styles and models in digital media
Communication and public understanding of global challenges
Interpretations of the material dimensions of artificial intelligence and the ecosocial crisis
Narratives and beliefs surrounding the end of the world in the contemporary communication ecosystem
Imaginaries and memories of ecological transitions in hyper-connected societies
Journalism and informational deserts across media and social networks
Theoretical approaches to changes in the post-mediatic public sphere
Beliefs about the ecosocial crisis within contemporary culture wars

***CALL CLOSED***

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

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

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

Proposed Research Lines

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

***CALL CLOSED***

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)