[acc-cca-l] Call for Papers, About Journalism, The commons as a force for rethinking information production? (aussi en français et en portugais)

[George, Éric]

[△EXTERNAL]



L’appel suivant est aussi en français et en portugais. Voir fichiers pdf ci-joint.


Sur le journalisme – About Journalism – Sobre jornalismo

International peer-reviewed open-access journal,

published in electronic and print editions

https://revue.surlejournalisme.com/


Call for Papers

The commons as a force for rethinking

information production?

Deadline: April 15, 2026

Editors of this special issue:

Éric George, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Fábio Henrique Pereira, Université Laval, Canada

Nathalie Pignard-Cheynel, Université de Neuchâtel, Suisse


The process of commodification of information – defined as the shift from use value

to exchange value (Mosco, 2017) – is continually evolving, especially as part of the drive for

ever-greater capital valorization. Over the past three decades, this dynamic has accelerated

across the information, culture, and communication sectors, in response to a structural crisis

of the capitalist system in which these industries struggle to remain viable sources of capital

valorization (Schiller, 2007; Bouquillion, 2008). This commodification process, long sustained

by advertising revenues, was profoundly disrupted in the 2010s when Google and Meta

absorbed most of those revenues (Papaevangelou, 2023; Sebbah et al., 2020; Smyrnaios &

Rebillard, 2019). The outcome has been a far-reaching crisis for news media, reigniting debates

over whether information can still be effectively valorized. In that context, a central question

emerges: has the information industries sector stopped being profitable?

At the same time, one may question whether profit-seeking industries are still able to

produce what is described as quality information, contributing to citizens’ political formation

and supporting the development of political systems moving toward democracy (Mouffe,

1994). This development has significantly weakened the legitimacy of journalism as a mediator

of the public sphere, particularly in a context marked by the emergence of news actors and

newly amplified voices. This is precisely why the notion of commons has gained renewed

relevance in discussions about information production.


The notion of commons is not necessarily in direct opposition with the commodification

process driven by the logic of capital (De Angelis & Harvie, 2014; Caffentzis & Federici, 2014).

Rather, it subordinates that process to the logic of a collective use value (Borrits, 2018). The

aim is therefore to prioritize use value – the social benefits generated by shared access to and

collective use of a resource – over its market value (Schlager & Ostrom, 1992).

More specifically, our focus on the commons can be understood in three ways:


(1) first, following Ostrom’s work (1990), as a set of self-governed resources managed by

collectives that establish shared governance rules for these natural resources (with

water often cited as an example);


(2) second, by emphasizing the institutional dimension of the commons and the necessity of

political struggle to make it the foundation of a new social order (Dardot & Laval,

2014), thereby distancing the commons from any form of naturalization (Madison et

al., 2008/2010);


(3) and finally, by understanding the commons as a new mode of production that offers

an alternative to capitalism (Brancaccio et al., 2021).


In this call for papers, we pursue a twofold objective: applying the concept of commons to

contemporary shifts in news production, and examining it through the tangible practices

emerging within the information sector. Methodologically, we draw on the proposals of

Ostrom (1990) and Bollier (2014), who argue that any attempt to grasp the commons in a

given project must take into account (1) the groups and individuals who initiate commonsbased

practices, (2) the object of the commons (in this case, the resource at stake, namely

information) and (3) the governance rules established by the community. As these three

dimensions may be present to varying degrees across different projects, it is crucial to consider

both their respective contributions and their interrelations (Pélissier, 2018).

Contributions may address one or several of these questions. They may fall within at least

one of the four sections outlined below.


(1) The commons in media management and governance practices. This section examines the

development of alternative ways of financing and managing media organizations that produce

information – what Kikuti Dancosky et al. (2021) and Camargo et al. (2023) refer to

as “alternative economic arrangements” to corporate media structures. Research engaging

with this theme may examine how the notion of commons is mobilized in collective governance

spaces within the media sector (such as journalistic cooperatives, alternative or independent

media), in projects that organize relationships between journalists and their audiences,

beyond the unrealized promises of participatory journalism (citizen newsrooms, reciprocal

journalism, community journalism, etc.). It may also explore the extent to which

the concept of commons informs the search for new funding models for information production

that move beyond the advertising-based capitalist model, including membership

schemes, crowdfunding, or philanthropic funding.


(2) The expression of the commons through media (meta)discourses. This section examines

how journalism contributes actively to the construction of a new social order – or even a

new utopia (Andrade & Pereira, 2021). Studies in this area may explore forms of news

production in which the notion of commons becomes central, expressed both through ideological

positions that diverge from dominant journalistic paradigms and through the inclusion

of other actors and marginalized voices in media discourse. This strand may also

investigate how journalism expands its own boundaries by circulating a range of metadiscourses

that seek to reshape, or at least question, the social definitions of the journalistic

profession.


(3) The relationship between public service media and the commons. Historically, public service

media have been structured around three core missions: inform, educate, and

entertain, following the well-known formula of Lord Reith, the first Director-General of

the BBC. How should we position the notions of commons and of public service within the

information sector (Tremblay et al., 2019)? How can we understand their relationship at a

time when the very existence of public services is being questioned in many countries?

And how could the idea of public service be reinterpreted, or even re-legitimized, in connection

with community-based approaches to the production of information?


(4) Ways journalists work and produce news. Newsrooms are typically highly hierarchical environments

(Meltzer, 2009; Francoeur, 2021), and can even be spaces where various forms

of violence take place (Le Cam & Libert, 2016). Similarly, relationships between journalists

and their sources depend on complex negotiations in which power dynamics are often at

play. New organizational forms within media outlets, however, may have the potential to

transform journalistic practices and conventional modes of news production. In other

words: does approaching news production through the lens of the commons invite us to

rethink the organization of journalistic work around principles of self-management? Or

even to reconsider the very role of journalists in producing information? This reflection

may also extend to the study of sociotechnical systems and emerging norms (including

legal ones) that shape journalistic work and redefine its conditions of production, such as

decentralized infrastructures, open-source tools, or information distributed under Creative

Commons licenses.


We particularly welcome submissions that place structural contexts at the center of their

analysis while remaining attentive to individual and collective forms of innovation, and that

bring together both present-day dynamics and longer temporal perspectives, as well as macroand

micro-level approaches. Taking the commons seriously today also requires acknowledging

that forms of commoning have long existed (Federici, 2014). Consequently, we approach the

notion of commons from the perspective of the possible transformations of the world (Guéguen,

2014) brought about through journalism and information, drawing on empirical work with

both local and global ambitions.


Submission instructions:

The deadline for submitting full manuscripts (between 30,000 and 50,000 characters, including

footnotes and bibliographical references) is April 15, 2026 directly on the website:

https://revue.surlejournalisme.com/slj/about/submissions. Please indicate in the subject of

your message the title of the issue to which you wish to contribute.

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish. Articles go through

a double-blind peer review.

About journalism - Sur le journalisme - Sobre jornalismo is a journal indexed in the following academic

databases: EBSCO Communication Source collection, Archive ouverte en Sciences de

l’Homme et de la Société (HAL-SHS), DOAJ, EZB (Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek),

Mir at bel, Sudoc, Sumários.Org, WorldCat (OCLC), European Reference Index for the

Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS). About journalism is classified as a

qualifying journal in France (according to the HCERES index). Brazilian Qualis-CAPES

evaluation for 2017-2020: A3.

References

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Mídia NINJA (Brasil). Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne

des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 47(1), 67–98.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2022.1996701

Bollier, D. (2014). Think like a commoner: A short introduction to the life of the commons. New Society

Publishers.

Borrits, B. (2018). Au-delà de la propriété: Pour une économie des communs. La Découverte.

Bouquillion, P. (2008). Les industries de la culture et de la communication: Les stratégies du capitalisme.

Presses universitaires de Grenoble.

Brancaccio, F., Alfonso, G., & Vercellone, C. (2021). Le commun comme mode de production. Lyber.

http://www.lyber-eclat.net/livres/le-commun-comme-mode-de-production

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Camargo, C. A., Nonato, C., Pachi Filho, F. F., & Lelo, T. V. (2023). Jornalismo financiado

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Dardot, P., & Laval, C. (2014). Commun: Essai sur la révolution du XXIe siècle. La Découverte.

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https://doi.org/10.25200/BJR.v17n2.2021.1382

Le Cam, F., & Libert, M. (2020). Journaliste, femme et senior: Une double peine ? Recherches en

communication, 43, 105–126. https://doi.org/10.14428/rec.v43i43.58053

Madison, M. J., Frischmann, B. M., & Strandburg, K. J. (2010). Constructing commons in the

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Meltzer, K. (2009). The hierarchy of journalistic cultural authority: Journalists’ perspectives

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