*CFP* “THE EMOTIONAL TURN IN JOURNALISM STUDIES”, SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNALISM STUDIES JOURNAL

Scholars across humanities and social sciences fields increasingly recognise the importance of emotion in social and political life. In journalism studies, the interest in emotions has gathered particular momentum during the last decade. Research has emphasised the shift towards ‘affective news’, blending information, opinion, emotion and personal experience in the  current media environment (Papacharissi 2015). The need to move beyond traditional dichotomies between rationality and emotion, or ‘quality journalism’ and ‘sensationalist journalism,’ and more closely examine journalism’s emotional dimensions is now broadly acknowledged.

This special issue of Journalism Studies is particularly interested in how the current media environment shapes the emotional practices and work of journalists; emotive storytelling across a range of journalistic platforms, genres and topics; and the emotional relationship between journalism and its audiences. The role of emotion in the production, circulation and consumption of journalism is all the more urgent to consider in the light of current and emerging technological conditions brought about by the digital era and the emergence of networked journalism.

In the context of production, changes in newswork have not only further undermined the ideal of the objective and impartial journalist but have also led to new demands for emotional labour.

Broader economic transformations have contributed to insecurity and precarity in journalistic work, shaping journalists’ emotional management of relationships with their sources, colleagues and audiences (Siapera 2019). This highlights the importance of advancing research on changing forms of emotional labour in journalism.

With respect to content, scholars argue that emotional storytelling is today more pervasive as traditional news organizations are competing to engage their audiences through more personal and emotional forms and genres (Beckett and Deuze 2016; Wahl-Jorgensen 2019), and through connecting with audiences by sharing their work through social media. Digital technologies allow for new forms and styles of storytelling driven by more authentic emotional experiences, such as ‘immersive’ VR or AR stories, hyperlocal news, and social media live broadcasting. Recent research has highlighted that the emotional engagement with news texts has also significant social and political consequences.

Finally, turning to the context of the consumption of journalism, emotion is a cornerstone for inspiring audience engagement with news texts. This suggests the need to understand audiences’ shifting and subjective relations with news media. Such research might shed light on what motivates particular affective responses of attention, appreciation, dislike and hate towards news texts and news organisations.

We welcome both conceptual and empirical, quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods submissions, and single country studies as well as cross-national comparisons that advance our understanding of the relationship between emotions and journalism vis-à-vis the economic, technological, cultural and social transformations.

We encourage submissions including, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Spaces, genres and forms of emotional storytelling 
• Circulation and regulation of different emotions through journalistic texts 
• Emotional attachments and practices of journalists 
• News coverage and public emotions 
• Audience’s emotional responses and engagements with journalistic texts

Instructions for contributors and timeline

We invite interested contributors to send a 500-word abstract with author name(s), institutional affiliation, and contact details to guest issue editors Mervi Pantti (mervi.pantti @helsinki.fi) and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (wahl-jorgensenk@cardiff.ac.uk) no later than June 15, 2019.

The abstract should clearly address the relevance of the proposed article to the theme of the special issue. The editors will review the abstracts. Author(s) will receive notification on whether they will be invited to contribute a full article no later than July 15th, 2019. Full articles should be submitted (to the same email address) by December 20, 2019. Note that all invited articles will still go through full and anonymous peer review, and that being invited to submit a full article is not a guarantee of final publication in the themed issue. Reviewer comments on full articles should be expected no later than February 17, 2020.

Guest editors: Mervi Pantti (University of Helsinki) and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (Cardiff University)