Call for Papers
Special Issue of Explorations in Media Ecology
“The Media Ecology of Sports”
Guest Editor: Édison Gastaldo, CEP/FDC, Brazil
We welcome contributions for a Special Issue on “The Media Ecology of Sports” to be published in Explorations in Media Ecology.
Since 2020, at the 21st Convention of the Media Ecology Association, the panel “The Media Ecology of Sports” brought out the discussion over the media-ecological interface with the universe of sports. As a media phenomenon par excellence, modern sports can be taken as a “technopolization” of traditional games. Under the power of rules, federations, statistics, contracts, sponsors and viewing rights, modern sports comprise a world of phenomena exclusively accessible through the media, even in the case of physical co-presence in stadiums or other public places. This special issue aims for paper submissions that discuss research trends over this interface, be it in the investigation of the growing “technopolization” of the universe of professional sports; the reconceptualization of the notions of “public” and “audience” in global media coverage of sports events, such as the Olympic Games or FIFA World Cup Finals; the collective construction of sports memories and dispute of narratives among fans; or the personal level of the technologization of sports as machine-mediated practices. The universe of sports, in its multiple dimensions (sociological, anthropological, economic, educational and media ecological) represents a wide field of possibilities for academic exploration.
Possible topics welcomed in this special issue include, but are not limited to:
- Sports fans and sport fandom;
- The technopolization of sports;
- Sports and education
- Sports and politics
- Sport journalism
- Professional sports
- Sports, games and play in media ecological theory
- The semiotics of sports phenomena
- Sports and gender
- Sports and identities
Abstracts (300 words) and a short biographical note should be submitted by February 1, 2026 via email to Edison Gastaldo (edisongastaldo@yahoo.com.br) with the subject line “Media Ecology of Sports.”
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission (300 words): February 1, 2026
- Manuscript submission: March 1, 2026
- Notifications: April 15, 2026
- Final manuscript submission: May 15, 2026
- Target publication date: September 2026
Paper Submission Format:
Contributors are asked to submit original papers (4000–6000 words) in the journal’s requested manuscript format. You can find more information about formatting here: https://www.intellectbooks.com/asset/8837/1/NfC_EME_16_1.pdf.
Special Issue Guest Editor:
Édison Gastaldo (edisongastaldo@yahoo.com.br) is a Brazilian anthropologist, Associate Professor at the Centre for Personnel Studies (CEP/FDC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has published extensively over the topics of sports and national identity in Brazil. His Ph.D. dissertation was published as a book (Nation, Soccer Shoes and Advertising) and was awarded the best Latin American Ph.D. Dissertation on Communications (2000). Between 2014 and 2019, he coordinated the “Soccer Fandom Project,” a multi-institutional collection of Brazilian soccer fans’ life story video interviews. The project involved 20 universities from all regions of Brazil and over 100 field researchers, and resulted in an open database with 112 video interviews available on a YouTube Channel, a full length documentary film (Soccer Fans: Life, Passion and Death in the Soccer Country, also available on YouTube), and a book and a photographic exhibition. He has participated in Media Ecology Association conventions since 2005 and, since 2020, has coordinated the panel “The Media Ecology of Sports” four times.
About Explorations in Media Ecology:
Explorations in Media Ecology, the journal of the Media Ecology Association, accepts submissions that extend our understanding of media (defined in the broadest possible terms), that apply media ecological approaches, and/or that advance media ecology as a field of inquiry. As a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary publication, EME welcomes contributions embracing diverse theoretical, philosophical and methodological approaches to the study of media and processes of mediation.