*CFP* “CHILDREN AND MEDIA: EMERGING ISSUES”, SPECIAL ISSUE. COMMUNICATIONS: THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

The role of media in the lives of children and youth has long been the subject of research attention within the media and communications scholarly community to the extent that there now exists a defined sub-discipline specialism dedicated to the subject, drawing on a full range of methodologies, research traditions and disciplinary formations. To a great extent, research attention has followed patterns of media and communications research more generally, focusing in particular on children as consumers and related patterns of consumption as well as contexts, effects and consequences of media use and media repertoires.

The wider socio-political environment and the technological landscape of global internet connectivity as it impacts on children and youth have also received much attention, with reference to the shaping of policies that take children’s views and children’s lives into account. Consequently, with a growing evidence base and greater critical awareness of the heterogeneity of children’s and youth’s media experiences, the research agenda has moved from a generalized characterization of children and media as a fixed or holistic relationship to a much more nuanced and complex understanding of the mediated nature of life-worlds for children as for members of the adult world.

Against this background, the aim of this Special Issue of Communications, The European Journal of Communication Research, is to take stock of the emerging issues for children and media as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century. Looking back on the research carried out over the last decade on the changing media environment for children, as well as children’s engagement with the internet and connected media, what are some of the key issues or challenges that are likely to persist in the coming years? In addition, what emerging issues for children and media are likely to warrant researchers’ attention, given the pace of technological evolution, and shifts in the regional and global economic structure of media production against the wider background of challenges facing sustainable development, climate action and global cohesion? Finally, what research methods are required (e.g., longitudinal, comparative, mixed, etc) to adequately address and to advance the field?

This Special Issue seeks to publish excellent recent research and invites submissions from both theoretical/conceptual and empirical perspectives on the emerging research agenda for media, children and youth.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to the following:

• Distinctive cultures of media consumption for children and youth
• Children’s active agency and media engagement
• Privacy, security and data protection issues and challenges with specific reference to children and youth
• The datafication of children’s and youth’s lives
• Digitization and provision for children’s media content
• Social media in children’s lives (the role of influencers, sharenting, etc)
• New media literacies (including information or data literacy)
• Social mediation (parental, peer and teachers’ mediation)
• Cross-cultural differences in children’s media access and use
• Children’s rights in the digital environment
• Gender differences in children’s media experiences
• Digital health, welfare and well-being
• Harmful online experiences and evidence-based solutions
• Advances in research methodologies for children and youth
• Policies, regulations and guidelines

Guidelines and instructions:

Abstracts of two pages should be sent to the guest editors: brian.oneill@TUDublin.ie and veronika.kalmus@ut.ee by March 15, 2020.

Communications allows for two formats: research articles (up to 8000 words) and Research-in-Brief contributions (up to 4000 words). Please specify your preferred format in the abstract proposal. Further guidelines for articles in Communications (e.g. the APA quotation style) can be found on the journal’s website.