Audience Section

Call for Proposals

The Audience (AUD) Section invites the submission of papers for IAMCR 2027, which will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 18 to 22 July 2027, hosted by the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (ECA/USP) in partnership with the Associação de Apoio à Arte e Comunicação (ARCO).

The deadline for submission is 12 February 2027 at 23:59 UTC.

Download this call for papers as a PDF file

Central theme

IAMCR conferences address many diverse topics defined by our 37 thematic sections and working groups. We also propose a single central theme to be explored throughout the conference with the aim of generating and exploring multiple perspectives. This is accomplished through plenary and special sessions, as well as in many of the sessions of the sections and working groups. The 2027 central theme is Multilateralism, Democracy, Diversity: Communication for a More Just World, is a globally resonant and critically urgent call to action.

Consult a detailed description of the main theme

The Audience Section supports research on how people use, interpret, and respond to media in everyday life. It is open to different theoretical traditions, methods, and disciplines, and it encourages dialogue among researchers who work in different regions and cultural contexts.

Digital platforms, artificial intelligence, and new forms of media production and distribution raise new questions about participation, reception, access, and the relationship between audiences and media institutions. Long-standing concerns with identity, representation, inequality, emotion, and everyday media use remain central to the field.

The section invites work that questions existing assumptions, revisits established concepts, or proposes new ways of studying audiences. It is especially interested in studies that advance theory, provide empirical evidence, or improve the methods of audience research.

Suggested Themes and Topics

Submissions may address the central theme of the conference or any other topic in audience research. The following areas are suggestions, not restrictions.

1. Theorising Audiences in Changing Media Environments

This area includes work that develops new theoretical approaches or revisits established concepts in audience studies. Papers may examine how digital platforms, automation, personalisation, and changing media practices affect the way audiences, reception, and participation are understood. Work that draws on feminist, decolonial, postcolonial, or other critical perspectives is welcome, as is research that brings different theoretical traditions into dialogue.

2. Audiences, Media Access, and Digital Divides

This area covers inequalities in media access, participation, and use. Relevant topics include differences in digital infrastructure, economic resources, language, media literacy, and technical skills, and the effects of algorithmic systems on access and visibility. Papers may also examine how audiences respond to these inequalities and how media access relates to citizenship, democratic participation, inclusion, and social justice.

3. Audiences at the Margins and in Motion

This area concerns under-represented audiences and groups whose media experiences have received little scholarly attention. Papers may study migrant, diasporic, transnational, or minority audiences and the links between their media practices and identity, belonging, representation, and cultural exchange. Studies of audiences in the Global South and of geographical, cultural, and social inequalities also fit here.

4. Networked and Personalised Audience Practices

This area addresses how audiences take part in networked media environments as users, followers, creators, influencers, and members of online communities. Papers may examine personalised media consumption, algorithmic recommendation, social interaction, and the formation of communities around shared interests. Studies of changing media repertoires and of the relationship between individual and collective audience practices are also relevant.

5. Audiences, Artificial Intelligence, and Algorithmic Mediation

This area covers how artificial intelligence affects audience experiences, practices, and perceptions. Topics include AI-generated content, recommendation systems, automated personalisation, trust, credibility, and AI literacy. Papers may also study how audiences understand and respond to algorithmic systems, including questions of transparency, technological power, digital sovereignty, and unequal access to and use of AI.

6. Reception, Environment, and Everyday Life

This area concerns media reception and its place in everyday life, including how people interpret media content and bring it into their routines, relationships, and social settings. It also includes environmental communication, climate change narratives, sustainability, and the reception of local and Indigenous media. Research on attention, habits, and the social contexts of media use is also relevant.

7. Audiences, Emotion, and Psychological Engagement

This area covers the emotional, cognitive, and psychological dimensions of audience experience. Topics include empathy, identification, enjoyment, moral evaluation, emotional responses, and involvement with different genres and platforms. Papers may draw on communication research, psychology, affect theory, or related fields to examine how people respond to media content and how these responses relate to their attitudes, interpretations, and behaviour.

8. Audiences, Industries, and Datafication

This area addresses how media industries, platforms, and institutions understand, measure, and respond to audiences. Papers may examine audience metrics, analytics, profiling, and the commercial use of audience data, and their consequences for media production, distribution, and representation. Studies of how audiences perceive data collection, privacy, and surveillance, and of how they negotiate or resist data-driven media practices, are also welcome.

9. Cross-Cultural and Comparative Audience Research

This area includes comparative studies of audiences across countries, regions, cultures, languages, and media systems. Papers may examine similarities and differences in media use, reception, interpretation, and participation, and the social and cultural conditions that explain them. International collaborations and studies that look beyond a single national or cultural context are especially encouraged.

10. Innovations in Audience Research Methods

This area invites papers that develop, test, or critically assess methods for studying audiences, whether qualitative, quantitative, computational, experimental, ethnographic, participatory, or mixed. Papers may also address methodological and ethical challenges, sampling, measurement, and the possibilities and limits of studying audiences in digital and hybrid media environments.

Guidelines for abstracts

Abstracts for papers to be presented in person in Audience Section sessions must be 800–1,000 words long, and must be submitted through IAMCR's submission system from 9 December 2026 through 12 February 2027 at 23:59 UTC. Abstracts submitted by email will not be considered.

Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Please note that there are special procedures for submitting panel proposals. You can find the detailed procedures when submitting your abstract online in the abstract submission system.

Authors are expected to submit only one (1) abstract, and no more than one (1) abstract can be submitted as first 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 co-author. Authors may not submit more than one abstract to any given section or working group nor may they submit the same abstract, or a version with minor variations in title or content, 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.

Student submissions

Doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and more senior scholars may submit proposals. Papers submitted by undergraduate or master’s students will not be considered. Please note that undergraduate and master's students are not eligible to be included in submissions to the AUD Section, even as co-authors, whether presenting or non-presenting.

Evaluation criteria

Proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Technical quality and clarity: clear organisation, coherent argument, and sound methodological or analytical grounding
• Originality and significance: the contribution of the research to existing knowledge or debates
• Theoretical contribution: engagement with relevant theoretical approaches and concepts
• Knowledge of the literature: familiarity with previous research and debates on the topic
• Relevance to the section: the connection between the proposal and audience research
• Readability: clear and accessible writing for an international academic audience

Decisions may also take into account the balance of the programme, including geographical representation, methodological diversity, and the inclusion of researchers at different career stages.

Languages

Abstracts may be submitted, and papers presented, in English, French, or Spanish. Presenters are encouraged to prepare their slides in English to facilitate discussion.

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.

Accepted papers must be presented in person by their authors. For co-authored papers, at least one of the authors must attend and present the paper. Only authors or co-authors of an accepted paper are permitted to present it. If none of the authors is able to attend and present, the paper will be removed from the conference programme.

Deadlines and key dates

The deadline to submit proposals is 12 February 2027, at 23:59 UTC.

Other key dates to keep in mind. 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