Special Issue - Call for Papers

Media Ecologies, Identity and Community: Family, Culture and Discourse in the Digital Era

Journal

Explorations in Media Ecology, the journal of the Media Ecology Association. Editor-in-Chief: Peggy Cassidy.

Guest Editor

Laura Trujillo-Liñán, Universidad Panamericana — President, Media Ecology Association. ltrujill@up.edu.mx

Abstracts Due

30 September 2026 — 300 words plus a short biographical note.

Target Publication

March 2027 — Volume to be confirmed.

Context and Rationale

The 26th convention of the Media Ecology Association, held in June 2025 at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico, brought together researchers from diverse disciplines to reflect on processes of mediation and their impact on human life. Although many panels focused on artificial intelligence, other discussions emerged that centred on how digital media shape identity and community. The panel Connecting Families Across Time and Space analysed kinkeeping and family timebinding practices and the gendered discursive functions involved in maintaining kinship ties. Media and Identity examined the impact of algorithms on our perception of reality. Media and Radicalization explored how monetizing interactions on X (formerly Twitter) influences the polarization of public opinion. There were also debates on digital communication for sustainability and the possibility of hidden agendas in organizational strategies, the role of urban communication with widows, orphans and strangers, contemporary photography as a technological narrative, and the influence of digital media on generational differences and critical thinking in the classroom. These discussions show that the Association is also interested in how media act as environments that shape identity, family relations, community belonging, cultural memory and activism. Since Explorations in Media Ecology has already published a special issue on “Artificial Intelligence and Media Ecology,” it is timely to devote a special issue to these other questions: how technological mediation reconfigures human bonds, popular culture and social polarization.

We invite research articles, theoretical essays, ethnographic work, case studies and creative proposals that analyse the relationship between media, identity and community from an ecological perspective.

For more details, including a list of possible topics, the different types of things EME publishes, submission information, and a timeline, see the full CFP.