Call for proposals 2026
The Audience Section (AUD) invites the submission of abstracts for its 2026 conference, to be held from 28 June to 2 July 2026 in Galway, Ireland, hosted by the University of Galway.
The deadline for submission is 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC.
Download this call for papers as a PDF file
Central theme
We welcome contributions that engage with the conference’s overarching theme, Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation, as well as those that reflect the Audience Section’s enduring commitment to advancing the study of audiences, users, and publics across diverse media environments, technological infrastructures, and cultural contexts.
Consult a detailed description of the main theme
Section focus
The Audience Section seeks to foster scholarly dialogue and empirical inquiry into the ways audiences engage with, interpret, and transform media in everyday life. It promotes interdisciplinary and international perspectives that illuminate how audiences are constituted through—and actively contribute to—social, cultural, political, and technological processes.
In an era marked by technological acceleration, environmental uncertainty, and global interdependence, audiences inhabit hybrid media environments that blur the boundaries between producers and consumers, local and global, private and public spheres. These evolving contexts generate new opportunities for participation and expression, while also intensifying concerns about inequality, exclusion, and algorithmic control.
We encourage scholarship that examines these dynamics critically and constructively, emphasising how audiences negotiate identity, belonging, and agency within increasingly complex media ecologies. The section particularly welcomes work that redefines the concept of audience in relation to power, technology, and culture, and that contributes to renewing the theoretical and methodological foundations of audience research.
Suggested Themes and Topics
Submissions may address the conference’s central theme or any of the Audience Section’s core and emerging concerns, which include—but are not limited to—the following thematic areas:
1. Theorising Audiences in Dynamic Media Environments
The section welcomes research that develops new theoretical frameworks or revisits established paradigms to better understand audiences in convergent, datafied, and algorithmically mediated contexts. Contributions may examine how processes of automation, personalisation, and platformisation reshape assumptions about mediation, participation, and reception. We particularly value scholarship grounded in situated, feminist, decolonial, and postcolonial approaches, as well as work that bridges disciplinary traditions to enrich contemporary audience theory and expand the epistemological scope of the field.
2. Audiences, Media Access, and Digital Divides
We invite analyses that address persistent digital inequalities shaping participation, access, and voice in contemporary communication systems. Papers may explore the consequences of infrastructural disparities, algorithmic hierarchies, linguistic exclusion, and economic constraints, as well as audiences’ adaptive and resistant strategies to navigate such asymmetries. The section particularly welcomes work that links issues of media literacy, inclusion, and empowerment to broader discussions of justice, citizenship, and participation in the digital era.
3. Audiences at the Margins and in Motion
We encourage studies that foreground peripheral, under-represented, and invisibilised publics and explore audience experiences across geographic, cultural, and social peripheries. Research focusing on diasporic, transnational, and migrant audiences is especially welcome, particularly work that examines how media practices sustain identity, belonging, and cultural hybridity across borders. The section also values contributions that illuminate centre–periphery dynamics and the mechanisms through which audiences in motion contest, negotiate, or reconfigure visibility in globalised, platformed environments.
4. Networked and Personalised Audience Practices
We invite papers addressing the networked, performative, and participatory nature of contemporary audience practices. Submissions may explore how individuals and communities act as followers, influencers, creators, or publics, and how these roles intersect with evolving platform ecologies. The section particularly welcomes analyses of personalisation and algorithmic curation in shaping engagement, visibility, and community formation, as well as studies that examine the social and cultural implications of individualised media repertoires and collective participation.
5. Audiences, Artificial Intelligence, and Algorithmic Mediation
We invite research exploring the growing impact of artificial intelligence on audience experience and participation. Contributions may analyse how AI-driven curation, recommendation systems, and generative models influence media access, interpretation, and meaning-making. The section also encourages work addressing AI literacy, transparency, and trust, emphasising how algorithmic mediation transforms relationships between audiences, media technologies, and systems of knowledge. Studies reflecting on the audience relation with the ethical and epistemic dimensions of AI-driven environments are particularly relevant.
6. Reception, Environment, and Everyday Life
The section welcomes research that investigates media reception as an ecological and social practice, focusing on how audiences integrate mediated meanings into daily life. We particularly encourage studies examining the reception of environmental communication, climate narratives, and sustainability discourses, as well as locally grounded and indigenous media practices that promote ecological awareness and resilience. We also value research exploring how media are embedded in everyday routines and environments, contributing to broader understandings of habit, attention, and the mediation of social and ecological relations.
7. Audiences, Emotion, and Psychological Engagement
We welcome analyses of the emotional, cognitive, and embodied dimensions of audience engagement. Contributions may focus on empathy, identification, moral evaluation, enjoyment, outrage, or affective investment across different media genres and platforms. The section values interdisciplinary perspectives that connect communication, psychology, and affect theory to understand how emotions structure participation, shape belonging, and sustain cultural communities and movements.
8. Audiences, Industries, and Datafication
We invite critical reflections on how media industries, platforms, and institutions define and measure audiences through data-driven systems. Papers may address how metrics, analytics, and algorithmic profiling construct publics and monetise attention, reshaping notions of participation and representation. The section encourages analyses of audiences’ own strategies of negotiation and resistance to datafication, as well as studies reflecting on the ethical, political, and epistemological implications of audience quantification.
9. Audiences, Sustainability, and Social Transformation
We invite work that connects audience research to questions of sustainability, equity, and collective transformation. Contributions may examine how audiences engage with media representations of environmental and social justice, or how audience practices themselves become sites of activism, ethical reflection, and change. The section encourages perspectives that conceptualise sustainable audiencehood—from mindful consumption to media practices that foster care, community, and ecological responsibility.
10. Cross-Cultural and Comparative Audience Research
The section welcomes cross-cultural and comparative approaches that explore how audiences engage with media across diverse cultural, linguistic, and technological settings. Such work may analyse convergences and divergences in audience practices, meanings, and identities across regions, nations, or platforms. We encourage research that advances transnational and intercultural dialogue, highlighting both global interdependencies and local specificities. Collaborative projects that connect scholars and perspectives from different parts of the world are particularly valued for their contribution to epistemic diversity and comparative methodology in audience studies.
11. Innovations in Audience Research Methods
We invite submissions that propose methodological innovation in audience research, including the development of new tools, designs, and data-collection strategies suited to hybrid and dynamic media environments. Examples may include digital ethnographies, participatory mapping, computational modelling, or mixed-method approaches. The section also welcomes critical reflections on classical audience methodologies and their adaptation to new contexts. Contributions that engage with reflexive and situated perspectives are encouraged, particularly those that expose research limitations, positionalities, or ethical challenges, and propose pathways toward more inclusive, transparent, and rigorous inquiry.
Guidelines for abstracts
Abstracts for papers to be presented in person at one of the Audience Section’s conference sessions, should be between 800 and 1000 words. They must be submitted exclusively through IAMCR’s submission system from 28 November 2025 through 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC. Abstracts submitted by email will not be considered.
Proposals are accepted for:
- Single papers, or
- Multi-paper panels (4–5 related papers addressing a shared theme)
It is expected that each person will submit only one abstract. However, no author’s name should appear on more than two abstracts, either individually or as part of any group of authors and authors should not submit more than one abstract to any single section or working group. The same abstract, or a version with minor variations in title or content, must not be submitted to more than one Section or Working Group. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected. Authors submitting the same work to multiple Sections or Working Groups may be removed entirely from the conference programme.
Evaluation criteria
All submitted proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Technical quality and clarity: The submission demonstrates clear organisation, coherent argumentation, and sound methodological or analytical grounding.
- Originality and significance: The proposal offers a novel perspective, contributes to advancing knowledge, or addresses an emerging issue of importance to the field.
- Theoretical contribution: The abstract engages meaningfully with theory, either by applying, extending, or critically reflecting on existing conceptual frameworks.
- Command of relevant literature: The submission shows familiarity with key research, theoretical debates, and empirical findings related to the proposed topic.
- Relevance to the section: The topic aligns with the thematic focus of the Audience Section and speaks to current trends, debates, or challenges within the field.
- Readability and communication quality: The abstract is well-written, accessible, and suitable for an international, interdisciplinary scholarly audience.
Acceptance decisions will also take into account programme diversity and balance, including the representation of different perspectives, regions, career stages, and methodological approaches.
Languages
Abstracts are welcome in English, French, or Spanish. Presentations may also be delivered in any of these languages. To facilitate accessibility and discussion, presenters are encouraged to prepare their slides in English.
Statement on use of AI tools
IAMCR does not encourage or condone the use of generative AI tools to prepare abstracts submitted for consideration for our conferences. IAMCR values originality, integrity, and transparency in academic work, and believes that human-authored contributions best support rigorous and innovative scholarship in media and communication research. Should an author choose to use a generative AI tool in the preparation of an abstract, we require that they include a clear statement within their submission disclosing the tool's use. This statement must specify: (1) the name of any AI tool used; (2) how the tool was used in preparing the abstract, and; (3) the reason for using the tool. Failure to disclose the use of generative AI in accordance with these guidelines may impact the evaluation and acceptance of the submission.
Intention to attend
Each abstract submitted to IAMCR represents a real cost to the Association and contributes to the workload of volunteer reviewers and organisers. As the number of submissions each year far exceeds the available presentation slots, we ask authors to submit only if they genuinely intend to attend and present their work at the conference if accepted.
Deadlines and key dates
The deadline to submit proposals is 3 February 2026, at 23:59 UTC. Other key dates. Dates are subject to change.
About the Audience Section
Learn more about the work and scope of the Audience Section.
Contact the Section
Co-Chairs:
Maria T. Soto-Sanfiel (maite.soto@gmail.com)
Rafal Zaborowski
Vice-Chairs:
Maria Jose Masanet
Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam
Erika Ningxin Wang
