*CFP* "WHAT'S NEXT FOR MEDIA DEVELOPMENT?", SPECIAL ISSUE, JOURNAL OF APPLIED JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES

Media development – a field of practice and international cooperation encompassing policy advocacy, training and capacity building for journalists, the formation of professional associations, and the reform of public service media, among other activities – seems both timely and anachronistic. 

What is becoming of media development – and how can it be reconceptualized – amid fundamental changes to the political economy of the media sector and the shifting of geo-political powers that have been foundational to the global media sphere in the eight decades since the end of WWII? And how can we make these interventions more effective by better linking them to context, building participatory engagement with local actors, and taking more gender-transformative approaches?

Contributions to this special issue are invited that offer re-evaluations and potential alternatives to normative views of media development and that explore strategies and pathways to media development that contend with contemporary challenges in the sector.

Topics and areas of research:

• Models of media development and theories of change, including normative and theoretical reflections on Western, participatory, gender-transformative, post-colonial, hybrid and alternative models, among others. 
• Studies and reflections on programmes of journalism training, mentoring, and support –especially those that consider distinct cultures and political economies of journalism around the world. 
• Media capture in the digitized communication sphere, including studies that elucidate strategies and models for resilience and resistance.  
• Studies that inform the strategies and approaches to media development with consideration for internet governance, platform governance, artificial intelligence and other contemporary issues associated with digital convergence. 
• Studies that point to new or innovative business models for independent media, particularly with consideration to the distinct historical legacies and political economies of journalism sectors around the world. What are the lessons learned so far? 
• Studies and conceptual reflections that inform possible responses to the declining public trust in media and to the information disorder, with consideration for the contextually specific manifestations of these issues around the globe.

 

Research design and methodological requirements

This special issue encourages a variety of research design and methodological approaches including (but not limited to):

• conceptual and empirical studies 
• quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method approaches 
• using data from direct observations and secondary sources 
• using correlation-based, econometrics, configurational approaches, data mining and text mining for data analysis 
• action-oriented and participatory research methods 
• reflective pieces from practitioners making use of rigorous learning and evaluation processes.

 

Submission and review schedule

15 September 2021: submission of full articles for peer review (through the online Intellect system)

15 November 2021: reviewer comments returned

15 January 2022: submission of revised articles along with a signed copyright and publishing agreement.

15 February 2022: final articles submitted to AJMS

estimated date of publication – June 2022