Texts and Contexts Issue 32: “Media and Digital Constructions of Political and Social Actors”

Publication: January–June 2026 (rolling acceptance)

Suggested submission period: July 14 through October 31, 2025

Dossier Editors:
PhD Palmira Chavero – FLACSO Ecuador / RICE
M.Sc. Josefa Paredes-Paspuel – FACSO / Central University of Ecuador

Introduction to the Dossier:
The Age of Hyperconnectivity has transformed the dynamics of communication and public visibility for political and social actors. Technological platforms and digital devices are new arenas in which scenarios of representation, interaction, and symbolic contestation are generated and fostered, giving rise to new ways of engaging in politics, exercising citizenship, and exerting influence in the public sphere.

Ephemeral, interactive formats—driven by algorithms and trends—have become the standard for political discourse on social media, shaping perceptions, public debate, and the formation of social imaginaries among the public and audiences. However, digital spaces also serve as venues where discourses and actions that highlight resistance, activism, historical demands, and new subjectivities converge; at the same time, they are spaces where hate speech, the trivialization of politics, and the sensationalization of politics converge.

This dossier aims to bring together research, studies, and reflections on political and social actors on digital platforms, as well as on their construction, framing, and disputes. We are interested in both analyses of media representation in print, television, and radio, and studies that examine the circulation of content on social media. In addition, we invite submissions on mobilization processes, counter-narratives, new forms of digital activism, and representations of groups in digital spaces, as well as the links and relationships between political, economic, and media power.

Thematic Areas
- Media representations of political and social actors
- Emotions, algorithms, and affective politics on social media
- Social and territorial imaginaries on digital platforms
- Digital activism, social movements, and new repertoires of collective action
- Visibility and representation of dissidents and minorities in the media and on social media
- The relationship between traditional media, economic elites, and political power
- Trivialization and aestheticization in digital environments
- Shaping the public agenda in hyper-mediatized environments
- Political conflicts and crisis narratives in the media and on social media
- Ethics, symbolic violence, and hate speech in the digital sphere