Bucharest 2027

Call for Papers and Special Sessions

Media organisations operate within increasingly complex and evolving media ecosystems shaped by technological change, geopolitical instability, economic pressure, and shifting audience practices. Alongside legacy media institutions, digital-native outlets, independent media, platform-dependent publishers, and content creators now play a significant role in shaping information flows and public discourse. These developments raise fundamental questions about how responsibility is defined, distributed, and enacted across different types of media actors. Traditionally, media responsibility has been associated with editorial norms such as accuracy, independence, and accountability. However, media organisations also function as corporate actors, with broader obligations related to sustainability, governance, and stakeholder engagement (Olkkonen, 2018). This dual role is becoming more visible across contexts, particularly as media organisations navigate changing business models, platform dependencies, and new forms of audience interaction.

In times of crisis, conflict, and war, these responsibilities become more pronounced and more complex. Media organisations occupy a distinctive position because they are simultaneously organisational actors and institutions that shape public information, interpretation, and debate. They may engage not only through content production, but also through corporate social responsibility initiatives, operational decisions, and strategic positioning (Anton et al., 2025). Responses may include humanitarian support, infrastructure provision, partnerships, or editorial interventions, reflecting both organisational priorities and societal expectations (Jupowicz-Ginalska et al., 2026). This dual role may also generate tensions between different forms of responsibility: expectations that media organisations contribute actively to societal needs may sit uneasily alongside commitments to editorial independence, impartiality, professional autonomy, or the separation between editorial and commercial decision-making. These tensions may become particularly visible in crisis and wartime contexts, where decisions about whether and how to intervene can themselves carry social and political consequences. At the same time, emerging and less institutionalised media actors operate under different constraints and may enact responsibility in more fragmented or informal ways. They may face similar societal expectations while operating under different professional norms, resources, and governance structures. In more stable contexts, responsibility is increasingly articulated through sustainability strategies, governance models, transparency practices, and responses to technological developments such as artificial intelligence and platformisation (Jakobsson & Stiernstedt, 2023; Dodds et al., 2025). Across these contexts, the distinctive societal role of media raises questions about how editorial, organisational, and societal responsibilities are balanced, and with what consequences for accountability, legitimacy, and long-term viability across diverse media systems and socio-economic contexts.

#emmaBucharest invites contributions that examine how media responsibility is managed, but also understood, negotiated, and enacted across changing media ecosystems. Particular attention is given to how responsibilities are redefined, intensified, or contested in contexts of crisis, conflict, and war, when media organisations may face heightened societal expectations, operational pressures, ethical dilemmas, and demands for forms of engagement that extend beyond content production. At the same time, the conference welcomes research on responsibility in more stable contexts, including sustainability strategies, governance arrangements, technological change, and evolving stakeholder relationships. We encourage research that connects media CSR, sustainability, governance, and ethics across legacy, digital- native, independent, platform-dependent, and other emerging media actors, both in periods of relative stability and under conditions of crisis, conflict, and war. Contributions may examine organisational practices, business models, decision-making, accountability, stakeholder relationships, and the  distribution of responsibility across increasingly complex media ecosystems. Beyond explicitly responsibility-focused research, the conference also welcomes work on the organisational, managerial, strategic, economic, and technological dynamics through which media organisations respond to and are transformed by crisis, conflict, war, and other forms of disruption. Together, these perspectives contribute to a broader understanding of media organisation and management in changing media ecosystems.

References:

• Anton, A., Zakrzewska, E., Maijanen, P., Sámelová, A., Will, A., Harms, B., Bezchotnikova, S., Skulte, I., Matei, A., Dudziak-Kisio, M., Anghel, G., & Jupowicz-Ginalska, A. (2025). A media CSR model for wartime contexts. Journal of Media Business Studies, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2025.2592392
• Dodds, T., Zamith, R., & Lewis, S. C. (2025). The AI turn in journalism: Disruption, adaptation, and democratic futures. Journalism, 27(3), 530-544. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849251343518
• Jakobsson, P., & Stiernstedt, F. (2023). Trust and the media: Arguments for the (ir)relevance of a concept. Journalism Studies, 24(4), 479–495. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2023.2169191
• Jupowicz-Ginalska, A., Anton, A., Maijanen, P., & Harms, B. (Eds.). (2026, in press). Media corporate social responsibility in times of war: Crisis, communication, and the conflict in Ukraine. Routledge.
• Olkkonen, L. (2018). Separation or integration of journalistic and business responsibilities? Corporate responsibility in Finnish media companies. Journal of Media Business Studies, 15(3), 169–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/16522354.2018.1496554
• Painter-Morland, M., & Deslandes, G. (2017). Reconceptualizing CSR in the media industry as relational accountability. Journal of Business Ethics, 143, 665–679. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3083-0

Recommended topics include (but are not limited to):

• Media corporate social responsibility (CSR) and media responsibility (MR) frameworks and practices
• Responsibility across media ecosystems: legacy media, digital-native outlets, independent media, and platform-dependent actors
• Media responsibility in times of crisis, conflict, and war
• Organisational responses to geopolitical crises and societal disruptions
• Media organisations as corporate citizens: beyond editorial responsibility
• Sustainability strategies, ESG practices, and accountability in media industries
• Tensions between economic pressures and social responsibility
• Governance, transparency, and decision-making in media organisations
• Responsibility and accountability in decentralised and hybrid media environments
• Platformisation, power asymmetries, and responsibility in digital media ecosystems
• AI integration, automation, and responsibility in media organisations
• Data practices, personalisation, and ethical implications
• Trust, legitimacy, and credibility in fragmented media environments
• Audience engagement, expectations, and stakeholder relationships
• Media responsibility in relation to misinformation, disinformation, and hybrid communication environments
• Crisis management, resilience, and organisational adaptation
• Business models of responsible media, including independent and entrepreneurial media
• Public service media and responsibility in digital transformation
• Responsibility in content creation, distribution, and platform governance
• Cross-national and comparative perspectives on media responsibility
• Methodological and theoretical developments in media CSR and responsibility research

Submission Guidelines

Regular session submission

Abstract submission:

Submissions for the emma conference are invited as paper proposals in the form of abstracts (500-750 words excluding references) followed by a full paper (8000 words maximum excluding references) if the abstract is accepted. The deadline for abstract submissions is 5 February 2027. The abstract should include the following sections:

• Introduction: problematisation, research purpose, context, and empirical phenomenon (practical and social relevance, connections), and relevance to media management scholarship (theoretical relevance)
• Methodology: overview of key scientific methods employed, analytical steps
• Tentative results: summary of (expected) results, findings, outcomes
• Tentative contributions: Theoretical contribution, practical and/or policy implications

All submissions will go through the process of double-blind peer review by experts nominated to the conference’s scientific committee. Full papers are considered for the emma 2027 Best Paper Award only if they are submitted by the deadline for full papers (May 10, 2027).

Further information:

• Submissions must be in English, size 12 font, Times New Roman and double-line spacing.
• emma 2027 will not incorporate a hybrid option for online paper presentations

Special session submission

The emma conference welcomes submissions for special thematic sessions. We encourage the exploration of interactive and novel session formats. Such sessions could, for example, focus on:

1. methodological innovations or the plethora of media management methodology in general;
2. topics, methods, formats, and didactical issues in media management educatio;
3. preparing for international collaboration in research (edited volumes, joint projects);
4. strategies and measures for the development of emma as an organisation (geographical growth and alongside with it new themes e.g. at the frontiers of Europe) – to be discussed with the Board prior to submission;
5. launching systematic foresight activities together with European media industry possibly in the context of emma.

The accepted sessions will be slotted as concurrent offerings within the conference schedule. Please adhere to the following guidelines:

• The session’s duration should span 90 minutes.
• A minimum of four participants, originating from a minimum of two distinct universities and/or institutions, must be included in the application. It is essential that all participants commit to being available throughout the entire conference programme.
• The proposal should be submitted by a designated session chair, who will assume responsibility for all facets of the sub-session, including coordination during the conference and acting as the corresponding author.
• Proposals for special thematic sessions should not exceed a word limit of 1250 (excluding references) and should include a narrative supporting the relevance and novelty of the topic and the relation to the conference theme.
• When the submission system asks for author information, please enter only the name and affiliation of the session chair, not the names of the other authors or contributors, these should be added to the proposal text.
• Special session proposals will undergo a peer review process. Please note that this review will not be conducted blindly. Instead, it will focus on evaluating the session’s alignment with the conference theme, the relevance of the proposed topic, as well as the quality and novelty of the session’s concept.