Category: Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series

Call for book proposals for the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series now open
Featured Post

Call for book proposals for the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series now open

Critical Digital and Social Media Studies is an established open access book series edited by Professor Christian Fuchs.

With funding from the Jisc Open Access Community Framework (OACF), which allows us to publish without author facing fees or book processing charges, we are now inviting submissions for book proposals that fall within the scope of the series and fit the criteria set out below. 

Books in the series are published open access online in ePUB, Mobi and PDF formats and simultaneously as affordable paperbacks. They are published using a Creative Commons licence and copyright in the work is retained by the author. Books are hosted on open access book platforms including the UWP website, JSTOR and OAPEN.

The series has published 24 books since its launch in 2016, and titles in the series have won and been shortlisted for major academic book prizes, published in foreign language editions, been widely reviewed in leading journals, and are amongst the most downloaded titles published by the Press. 

CALL DETAILS

Submissions must be for projects between 35,000-90,000 words in length, with a preference for projects that can submit a full draft typescript within the next 6-12 months.  We favour single or co-authored monograph proposals but will also consider suggestions for edited collections.

Submissions should include a proposal form, which can be downloaded here, author/editor CVs and one sample chapter.

The submission deadline for proposals is 15 March 2023, 23:59 GMT.

Submissions will be shortlisted by the series editor and successful proposals will then be sent for external peer review. Shortlisted proposals will be peer reviewed in accordance with the Association of University Presses guidelines on peer review, and will be assessed by the series editor, external referees and the UWP Editorial Board.  Final decisions will be made by 31 May 2023.

Submissions should be made via email to Philippa Grand, Press Manager at University of Westminster Press, at p.grand@westminster.ac.uk. Please use this email address for any queries about the submission process or the Call in general.

PROPOSAL DETAILS

The proposal should include the following sections and information:
1) Book title and author/editor detais
2) Project overview (a synopsis of up to 500 words; three main features of the book that make it distinct; five keywords)
3) Table of Contents
4) Chapter abstracts
5) Author/editor biographies
6) Target audience
5) The five most important publications thus far by each author (in the case of collected volumes only refer to the editor(s))
6) Audience (For whom do you write this book? Who will read it?)
7) Competing publications
8) Typescript information
9) Timetable for the project
10) Sample chapter details

SERIES AIMS AND SCOPE

The Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series publishes books that critically study the role of the internet, digital and social media in society and make critical interventions. Books in the series analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology, domination and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theories, are profoundly theoretical and discuss the political relevance and implications of the topics under scrutiny.

The series is a critical theory forum for internet and social media research that makes critical interventions into contemporary political topics in the context of digital and social media.  It is interested in publishing work that, based on critical theory foundations, develops and applies critical social media research methods that challenge digital positivism, as well as digital media ethics that are grounded in critical social theories and critical philosophy. The series’ understanding of critical theory and critique is grounded in approaches such as critical political economy and Frankfurt School critical theory.

TOPICS

Topics that we are interested in receiving proposals on include but are not limited to:

  • Digital capitalism
  • Digital labour
  • The political economy of digital and social media
  • Digital and informational capitalism
  • Ideology critique in the age of social media
  • The political economy of fake news and post-truth on the internet
  • Digital fascism
  • Digital authoritarianism
  • Digital warfare
  • Digital socialism
  • Marxist theory in the digital age
  • The public service internet
  • The digital public sphere and digital democracy
  • New developments of critical theory in the age of digital and social media
  • Critical studies of advertising and consumer culture online
  • Critical social media research methods
  • Critical digital and social media ethics
  • Working class struggles in the age of social media
  • The relationship of class, gender and race in the context of digital and social media
  • Critical analysis of the implications of Big Data
  • Cloud computing
  • Digital positivism
  • The Internet of Things
  • Predictive online analytics
  • The Sharing Economy
  • Location based data and mobile media
  • The role of classical critical theories for studying digital and social media
  • Platform co-operatives
  • The Digital Commons
  • Critical studies of the internet economy
  • Online prosumption
  • Subjectivity, consciousness, affects, worldviews and moral values in the age of digital and social media
  • Digital art and culture in the context of critical theory
  • Environmental and ecological aspects of digital capitalism and digital consumer culture
  • Algorithmic discrimination
  • Critical studies of digital surveillance
  • State power in the digital age
  • Activism in the digital age
  • Digital (in)justice

PUBLISHED TITLES

Christian Fuchs, Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet

Mariano Zukerfeld, Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism WINNER OF THE AMILCAR HERRARA PRIZE 2018

Trevor Garrison Smith, Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy

Scott Timcke, Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare

Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano (eds) The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism

Annika Richterich, The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies

Kane X. Faucher, Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation

Joan Pedro-Carañana, Daniel Broudy and Jeffery Klaehn (eds), The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness

Jeremiah Morelock (ed), Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism

Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis and Alex Pazaitis, Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto

Micky Lee, Bubbles and Machines: Gender, Information and Financial Crises

Vincent Rouzé (ed), Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour and Globalization

Robert Hassan, The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern ­Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life

Benjamin J. Birkinbine, Incorporating the Digital Commons: Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software

Paolo Bory, The Internet Myth: From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

Christian Fuchs, Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory

Mike Healy, Marx and Digital Machines: Alienation, Technology, Capitalism

Vangelis Papadimitropoulos, The Commons: Economic Alternatives in the Digital Age

Antonios Broumas, Intellectual Commons and the Law: A Normative Theory for Commons-Based Peer Production

Jamie Woodcock, The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy

Pieter Verdegem (ed), AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives SHORTLISTED IN THE MeCCSA OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2022

Jeremiah Morelock and Felipe Ziotti Narita, The Society of the Selfie: Social Media and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Adi Kuntsman and Esperanza Miyake, Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement: In Search of the Opt-Out Button

Emiliana Armano, Marco Briziarelli and Elisabetta Risi (eds), Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities

EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr Thomas Allmer, Paderborn University, Germany
Prof Dr Mark Andrejevic, Pomona College, USA
Dr Miriyam Aouragh, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Charles Brown, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Melanie Dulong De Rosnay, CNRS, France
Dr Eran Fisher, The Open University of Israel
Prof Christian Fuchs, Paderborn University, Germany (Series Editor)
Dr Peter Goodwin, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Jonathan Hardy, University of the Arts London, UK
Prof Kylie Jarrett, Maynooth University, Ireland
Dr Anastasia Kavada, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Arwid Lund, Södertörn University, Sweden
Prof Maria Michalis, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prof Vincent Mosco, Queens University, Canada
Prof Safiya Noble, UCLA, USA
Prof Jack L Qiu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr Jernej Amon Prodnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Prof Sarah Roberts, UCLA, USA
Dr Marisol Sandoval, City University of London, UK
Dr Sebastian Sevignani, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany
Dr Pieter Verdegem, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Bingqing Xia, East China Normal University, China
Dr Mariano Zukerfeld, CONICET, Argentina

Call for Book Proposals for the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies Series Now Open
Featured Post

Call for Book Proposals for the Critical Digital and Social Media Studies Series Now Open

Critical Digital and Social Media Studies is an established open access book series edited by Professor Christian Fuchs.

With funding from the Jisc Open Access Community Framework (OACF), which allows us to publish without author facing fees or book processing charges, we are now inviting submissions for book proposals that fall within the scope of the series and fit the criteria set out below. 

Books in the series are published open access online in ePUB, Mobi and PDF formats and simultaneously as affordable paperbacks. They are published using a Creative Commons licence and copyright in the work is retained by the author. Books are hosted on open access book platforms including the UWP website, JSTOR and OAPEN.

The series has published 24 books since its launch in 2016, and titles in the series have won and been shortlisted for major academic book prizes, published in foreign language editions, been widely reviewed in leading journals, and are amongst the most downloaded titles published by the Press. 

CALL DETAILS

Submissions must be for projects between 35,000-90,000 words in length, with a preference for projects that can submit a full draft typescript within the next 6-12 months.  We favour single or co-authored monograph proposals but will also consider suggestions for edited collections.

Submissions should include a proposal form, which can be downloaded here, author/editor CVs and one sample chapter.

The submission deadline for proposals is 15 March 2023, 23:59 GMT.

Submissions will be shortlisted by the series editor and successful proposals will then be sent for external peer review. Shortlisted proposals will be peer reviewed in accordance with the Association of University Presses guidelines on peer review, and will be assessed by the series editor, external referees and the UWP Editorial Board.  Final decisions will be made by 31 May 2023.

Submissions should be made via email to Philippa Grand, Press Manager at University of Westminster Press, at p.grand@westminster.ac.uk. Please use this email address for any queries about the submission process or the Call in general.

PROPOSAL DETAILS

The proposal should include the following sections and information:
1) Book title and author/editor detais
2) Project overview (a synopsis of up to 500 words; three main features of the book that make it distinct; five keywords)
3) Table of Contents
4) Chapter abstracts
5) Author/editor biographies
6) Target audience
5) The five most important publications thus far by each author (in the case of collected volumes only refer to the editor(s))
6) Audience (For whom do you write this book? Who will read it?)
7) Competing publications
8) Typescript information
9) Timetable for the project
10) Sample chapter details

SERIES AIMS AND SCOPE

The Critical Digital and Social Media Studies series publishes books that critically study the role of the internet, digital and social media in society and make critical interventions. Books in the series analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology, domination and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theories, are profoundly theoretical and discuss the political relevance and implications of the topics under scrutiny.

The series is a critical theory forum for internet and social media research that makes critical interventions into contemporary political topics in the context of digital and social media.  It is interested in publishing work that, based on critical theory foundations, develops and applies critical social media research methods that challenge digital positivism, as well as digital media ethics that are grounded in critical social theories and critical philosophy. The series’ understanding of critical theory and critique is grounded in approaches such as critical political economy and Frankfurt School critical theory.

TOPICS

Topics that we are interested in receiving proposals on include but are not limited to:

  • Digital capitalism
  • Digital labour
  • The political economy of digital and social media
  • Digital and informational capitalism
  • Ideology critique in the age of social media
  • The political economy of fake news and post-truth on the internet
  • Digital fascism
  • Digital authoritarianism
  • Digital warfare
  • Digital socialism
  • Marxist theory in the digital age
  • The public service internet
  • The digital public sphere and digital democracy
  • New developments of critical theory in the age of digital and social media
  • Critical studies of advertising and consumer culture online
  • Critical social media research methods
  • Critical digital and social media ethics
  • Working class struggles in the age of social media
  • The relationship of class, gender and race in the context of digital and social media
  • Critical analysis of the implications of Big Data
  • Cloud computing
  • Digital positivism
  • The Internet of Things
  • Predictive online analytics
  • The Sharing Economy
  • Location based data and mobile media
  • The role of classical critical theories for studying digital and social media
  • Platform co-operatives
  • The Digital Commons
  • Critical studies of the internet economy
  • Online prosumption
  • Subjectivity, consciousness, affects, worldviews and moral values in the age of digital and social media
  • Digital art and culture in the context of critical theory
  • Environmental and ecological aspects of digital capitalism and digital consumer culture
  • Algorithmic discrimination
  • Critical studies of digital surveillance
  • State power in the digital age
  • Activism in the digital age
  • Digital (in)justice

PUBLISHED TITLES

Christian Fuchs, Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet

Mariano Zukerfeld, Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism WINNER OF THE AMILCAR HERRARA PRIZE 2018

Trevor Garrison Smith, Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy

Scott Timcke, Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare

Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano (eds) The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism

Annika Richterich, The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies

Kane X. Faucher, Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation

Joan Pedro-Carañana, Daniel Broudy and Jeffery Klaehn (eds), The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness

Jeremiah Morelock (ed), Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism

Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis and Alex Pazaitis, Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto

Micky Lee, Bubbles and Machines: Gender, Information and Financial Crises

Vincent Rouzé (ed), Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour and Globalization

Robert Hassan, The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern ­Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life

Benjamin J. Birkinbine, Incorporating the Digital Commons: Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software

Paolo Bory, The Internet Myth: From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

Christian Fuchs, Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory

Mike Healy, Marx and Digital Machines: Alienation, Technology, Capitalism

Vangelis Papadimitropoulos, The Commons: Economic Alternatives in the Digital Age

Antonios Broumas, Intellectual Commons and the Law: A Normative Theory for Commons-Based Peer Production

Jamie Woodcock, The Fight Against Platform Capitalism: An Inquiry into the Global Struggles of the Gig Economy

Pieter Verdegem (ed), AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives SHORTLISTED IN THE MeCCSA OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2022

Jeremiah Morelock and Felipe Ziotti Narita, The Society of the Selfie: Social Media and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy

Adi Kuntsman and Esperanza Miyake, Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement: In Search of the Opt-Out Button

Emiliana Armano, Marco Briziarelli and Elisabetta Risi (eds), Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities

EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr Thomas Allmer, Paderborn University, Germany
Prof Dr Mark Andrejevic, Pomona College, USA
Dr Miriyam Aouragh, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Charles Brown, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Melanie Dulong De Rosnay, CNRS, France
Dr Eran Fisher, The Open University of Israel
Prof Christian Fuchs, Paderborn University, Germany (Series Editor)
Dr Peter Goodwin, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Jonathan Hardy, University of the Arts London, UK
Prof Kylie Jarrett, Maynooth University, Ireland
Dr Anastasia Kavada, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Arwid Lund, Södertörn University, Sweden
Prof Maria Michalis, University of Westminster, UK
Prof Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Prof Vincent Mosco, Queens University, Canada
Prof Safiya Noble, UCLA, USA
Prof Jack L Qiu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr Jernej Amon Prodnik, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Prof Sarah Roberts, UCLA, USA
Dr Marisol Sandoval, City University of London, UK
Dr Sebastian Sevignani, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany
Dr Pieter Verdegem, University of Westminster, UK
Dr Bingqing Xia, East China Normal University, China
Dr Mariano Zukerfeld, CONICET, Argentina

<strong>‘ORIGINAL AND TIMELY’ UWP TITLE SHORTLISTED FOR MAJOR ACADEMIC BOOK PRIZE</strong>
Featured Post

‘ORIGINAL AND TIMELY’ UWP TITLE SHORTLISTED FOR MAJOR ACADEMIC BOOK PRIZE

University of Westminster scholar Pieter Verdegem’s edited book AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives has been shortlisted in the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association’s annual Outstanding Achievement Awards in the Edited Collection of the Year category. Judges noted that the book is ‘an original and timely collection that, in analysing discourses surrounding AI challenges notions of technological determinism and highlights the enduring importance of concepts of power within mass communication’. 

The book, published by University of Westminster Press, as part of the Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies  book series, edited by Christian Fuchs, is an open access publication with an international line-up of scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, setting out the need for critical perspectives on artificial intelligence in an era where AI is assumed to be inevitable and is seemingly ubiquitous.  Debate, the book argues, is urgently needed, especially regarding fundamental questions related to power.  Divided into three Parts, the book addresses critical perspectives on human-machine dualism, asks what makes for ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions makes this possible, and concludes by examining power and inequalities to explore how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. 

In short, the book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our time. 

Available to download in digital versions here, here and here, it is also available to purchase in print here and at other online bookshops. 

The Awards will be announced during the MeCCSA annual conference held in Aberdeen from 7-9th September. 

Featured Post

AI for Everyone? Critical Perspectives

UWP is pleased to announce that it will soon be publishing a new book exploring the role of contemporary AI and issues that need to be addressed concerning it. The volume will be edited by Pieter Verdegem of the University of Westminster. And it will be published open access in the series, Critical Digital and Social Media Studies edited by Christian Fuchs.

Description
We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that AI is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone.

The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths about AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is ‘desirable’ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed.

Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times.

Contents

  1. 1. Introduction: Why We Need Critical Perspectives on AI
    Pieter Verdegem

Part 1: AI – Humans vs. Machines

2.Artificial Intelligence (AI): When Humans and Machines Might Have to Coexist 
Andreas Kaplan

3. Digital Humanism: Epistemological, Ontological and Praxiological Foundations 
Wolfgang Hofkirchner

4. An Alternative Rationalization of Creative AI by De-Familiarizing Creativity: Towards an Intelligibility of Its Own Terms 
Jenna Ng

5. Post-Humanism, Mutual Aid
Dan McQuillan

Part 2: Discourses and Myths About AI

6. The Language Labyrinth: Constructive Critique on the Terminology Used in the AI Discourse
Rainer Rehak

7. AI Ethics Needs Good Data
Angela Daly, S. Kate Devitt and Monique Mann

8. The Social Reconfiguration of Artificial Intelligence: Utility and Feasibility
James Steinhoff 

9. Creating the Technological Saviour: Discourses on AI in Europe and the Legitimation of Super Capitalism
Benedetta Brevini

10. AI Bugs and Failures: How and Why to Render AI-Algorithms More Human?  Alkim Almila Akdag Salah

Part 3: AI Power and Inequalities 

11. Primed Prediction: A Critical Examination of the Consequences of Exclusion of the Ontological Now in AI Protocol
Carrie O’Connell and Chad Van De Wiele

12. Algorithmic Logic in Digital Capitalism
Jernej A. Prodnik

13. Not Ready for Prime Time: Biometrics and Biopolitics in the (Un)Making of California’s Facial Recognition Ban
Asvatha Babu and Saif Shahin

14. Beyond Mechanical Turk: The Work of Brazilians on Global AI Platforms  Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araújo

15. Towards Data Justice Unionism? A Labour Perspective on AI Governance  Lina Dencik

The Authors

Index 

(Paperback): 978-1-914386-16-9 (PDF): 978-1-914386-13-8 (EPUB): 978-1-914386-14-5

ISBN (Kindle): 978-914386-15-2

DOI: 10.16997/book55

A Cool Million: UWP Reach Readership Landmark
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A Cool Million: UWP Reach Readership Landmark

Over 1 million views and downloads have now been achieved by the University of Westminster Press since publishing its first journal issue in September 2015. (Figures end April 2021). The graphic presenting the following (and more) can be downloaded from our website.

Total Readership: 1,089,280

Books: 560,573

Journal Articles: 528,707

Readership by Nationality (estimate, where recorded) from 197 countries and territories.

1. UK 2. USA 3. Canada 4. Germany 5. Brazil 6. China 7. Australia 8. India 9. Italy 10. Spain 

Authors of New Publications: 276 unique authors from 38 countries, recorded by institution or current domicile.

Publications total:

35 books and 7 policy briefs

192 new journal articles from 2 new titles launched and 3 existing journals new to UWP

719 archive journal articles and 5 books distributed

Most Popular Book Titles: (1) Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism (ed. J. Morelock) 68,260 views/downloads (2) The Propaganda Model Today (ed. J. Pedro-Carañana et al.) 63,353 (3) Critical Theory of Communication (C. Fuchs) 37,350.

Top Journal Titles: Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (290,505 since 15/9/2015), Entertainment and Sports Law Journal (165,847 since 26/06/2016) and Journal of Deliberative Democracy 55,787 (since 28/08/2020).

UWP Series: ‘Critical Digital and Social Media Studies‘, 20 titles: 353,317; ‘CAMRI Policy Briefs‘, 7 titles, 44,413; ‘Law and the Senses‘ 24,102 (3 titles).

Context: UWP was established by a University steering group in 2014, hired its first part-time employee in February 2015 and published its journal issue in September 2015 and first book in October 2016. Its website went fully live on 12 May 2015. UWP has worked with platform providers Ubiquity Press and more recently for journals since 5 January 2021 Michigan Publishing/Janeway. It has functioned as a mixed model diamond open access publisher supported by income from book sales, central university and departmental contributions, one-off external university and grant-holder donations and library membership collective funding notably Knowledge Unlatched’s ‘Select’ programmes for individual titles. Many of its publications are in the area of media and communications but it has published book titles in history, philosophy, geography, education and politics. Its activities are overseen by a single UWP Editorial Board and it works within Research and Scholarly Communications, of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office, Student and Academic Services, University of Westminster.

UWP is considered to be a ‘New University Press‘, digital-first with open access as a key principle. Its logo is a ‘W’ consisting of an open laptop and an open book.

Thanks to our editors, authors, peer reviewers, UWP editorial board members past and present, series board members and our partners Ubiquity Press (books and website) and Michigan Publishing Services and Janeway (journals) and all our colleagues at the University of Westminster for helping UWP reach this landmark.

Digital Streaming of Entertainment Content and The Regulation of Social Media Entertainment Special Collections: Call for Papers

Digital Streaming of Entertainment Content and The Regulation of Social Media Entertainment Special Collections: Call for Papers

Special collections are planned for Digital and Social Media Entertainment topics by The Entertainment and Sports Law Journal

ESLJ is an established and internationally recognised online open access journal publishing open access with no author fees since 2002. It is currently published by the University of Westminster Press working with Michigan Publishing and the Janeway journals system.    

1.     Digital Streaming of Entertainment Content 
The Editors wish to embrace a variety of different disciplinary approaches to the broad area of Content Streaming. Suggested topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

Control over access for both established and new artists Artist perspectives
Content controversy and content control Copyright issues
Royalty Calculation and Distribution
Licensing and geo blocked content
Impact on existing market models
Delivery and environmental concerns.
Playlists and Recommendations

Authors are encouraged to submit material rooted in their own disciplinary perspective or from a cross disciplinary view.

2.     The Regulation of Social Media Entertainment 
Cunningham and Craig refer to Social Media Entertainment SME) as: ‘an emerging proto-industry fuelled by professionalizing, previously amateur content creators using new entertainment and communicative formats, including vlogging, gameplay, and do-it-yourself (DIY), to develop potentially sustainable businesses based on significant followings that can extend across multiple platforms’ (2019, 13).

Social media has developed exponentially from primarily being a source of information or a means to connect and share experiences to a vehicle to both host and consume entertainment content. Thus, Social Media has become part of the entertainment industry in its own right. This is in addition to the use of Social Media platforms such as YouTube to deliver more traditionally created content.

What are the implications of this new ‘proto-industry’ for the other parts of the industry, creators and consumers as the old regulatory structures dissipate? What is the impact on the creative artist in terms of ownership and payment? Are copyright concerns magnified in this new environment?

We consider regulation in its broadest sense to cover both control by platforms and self-censorship in addition to more traditional legal intervention. Gaps in regulation are just as significant. Pieces may cover broader themes such as the protection of minors or self-censorship that cut across different areas or more specific case studies.

Again, we encourage work from disciplines other than law especially from the creative field. We also welcome shorter pieces of work as well as full length articles.  

The Editors are proposing two special collections to be published between 1 October 2021 – March 2022. Articles to be published iteratively based on full text submission according to the ESLJ guidelines: https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/site/author-guidelines.

Our article types are:  

Research Articles: 6,000-8,000 words
Interventions: up to 4,000 words
Commentaries: up to 3,000 words
Book Reviews/Reviews: 1,000 to 2,000 words
Multimedia

If you would like to run an idea past an ESLJ editor or require any further information please contact Dr Steve Greenfield on S.Greenfield@westminster.ac.uk