*CFP* "COMMUNICATION FLOWS IN EUROPEAN ELECTIONS. BETWEEN POPULISM AND EUROSCEPTICISM", DECEMBER 2020, TRÍPODOS JOURNAL

The rise of populist movements from different ideologies, often linked to Eurosceptical positions, coincides with a context of uncertainty in the European project. From a political perspective, public debate focuses on addressing the European Union project itself. Similarly, the institutional crisis within the EU, whose epicentre now focuses on Brexit, paralyses advances in integration policies. The political fragility of the Paris-Berlin axis, a slowdown in economic growth and the problems emerging from the mismanagement of migratory flows contribute to fostering nationalist, ethnocentric and rejectionist discourses. Taken as a whole, all these issues suggest the loss or decline of the EU’s capacity for advocacy in the context of globalisation.

With such a context, it would be appropriate to analyse whether the media and digital communication reflection of the discussions taking place contribute to its clarification or, on the contrary, increase tensions. The role of mediation and mediatisation of crucial messages is key when defining, firstly, their interdependence and, secondly, the extent of their influence on public opinion, the construction of collective imagination and the impact on electoral processes. Thus, the purpose of this special issue is to analyse the presence and dissemination of these discourses through social media, social networks and other digital communication spaces, as well as their impact on political discourse and electoral results.

Introduction

The proposed special issue will have a common element running through all the articles: the influence of populist and Eurosceptic discourses on messages, speeches, European elections and on certain recent national electoral processes within EU countries. We are interested in gathering analyses that are specifically associated with these processes:

• New populist and traditional parties that have participated in the European Parliament elections and in European Union member elections. 
• The instrumentalisation of religion in populist discourses. 
• The role of social networks in elections. Fragmentation of the electorate and polarisation. 
• Electoral campaign themes. What are candidates talking about and what does the media focus on? Is there a European campaign or a variety of EU member campaigns? 
• The impact of Brexit on the European electoral campaign. European perspectives from the United Kingdom and image and references of the United Kingdom in the European Union. 
• Electoral studies comparatives between different countries. 
• Europeans vs European Union. European Elections and Euroscepticism. 
• EU communication strategies to promote pro-European discourses in the public space. 
• Nations without a State and European Elections: nationalist movements within the EU.

Objectives

The objectives of the special issue are summarised in the following areas:

• Outline the scope of populist discourses (track record, references, and impact on European politics). 
• Describe the resistance to the EU’s integrating discourse in the context of neoliberal globalisation vis-à-vis populist discourses. 
• Explore the 2019 European elections, and certain recent electoral processes at a national level within EU member states. 
• Analyse and define the confidence that citizens have in the media. 
• Establish the scope of ‘fake-news’ in the productive routines of information generated by the media. 
• Discuss the effectiveness and relevance of ‘fact-checkers’. 
• Evaluate the capacity of the media to determine the information agenda. 
• Investigate the effectiveness of political parties’ communicative strategies.

Papers should be sent by April 1, 2020. In order to submit original papers, authors must be registered with the journal as authors. Following this step, authors must enter their user name and password, activated in the process of registering, and begin the submission process. In step 1, they must select the section “Monograph”.

Rules and instructions regarding the submission of originals can be downloaded. For any queries, please contact the editorial team of the journal at tripodos@blanquerna.url.edu.

Trípodos is a international scholarly journal published by the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations at Ramon Llull University. Since 1996, the pages of this biannual publication have offered a forum for debate and critical discussion with regard to any discipline related to the world of communication: journalism, cinema, television, radio, advertising, public relations, the Internet, etc.

Trípodos:

Is indexed in SCOPUS and in Web of Science (WoS) – Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) database.

Occupies the 6th position in 2018 REDIB Ranking of Ibero-American Journal Rankings in the category of Communication.

Is in category C of the CIRC classification (Integrated Classification of Scientific Journals).

Is indexed, among others, in the following databases and catalogs: Ulrich’s periodicals directory, EBSCO Publishing, Communication Source, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), ERIH PLUS, ISOC, DICE, MIAR, Latindex, Dulcinea, REBID, Library of Congress, British Library, COPAC, SUDOC, ZDB, OCLC WorldCat, Dialnet, Carhus Plus+, RACO.

Has an h5-index of 9 in Google Scholar Metrics (2012-2016) and an h5-median of 13.

Editors: Guillermo López-García, Germán Llorca-Abad (Universitat de València, Spain)

Deadline for articles: 01/04/2020

Publication: December 2020

*The special issue will be entirely in English.