CFP for audio/visual essays for the Media Studies Journal
Mediální studia / Media Studies calls for the submission of audio/visual essays for its first edition of 2027. As part of the journal’s innovation strategy, peer-reviewed audio/visual essays will complement the journal’s already-existing written text articles. The aim of this expansion is to strengthen academic multimodality, validate academic work that transcends hegemonic forms of academic knowledge sharing and benefit from the abilities that auditive and visual modes of communication create.
Authors are invited to submit their A/V essays (and contextualising statements) for peer review before 15 September 2026, to the journal’s submission site at https://ms.vedeckecasopisy.cz/.
The genre of the academic A/V essay refers to formal and structured pieces of work with a clear narrative that creatively deploy audio/visual modes of communication. Subgenres include audiovisual essays, film essays, video essays, and sound essays. This implies that the A/V Section also (warmly) welcomes essays that are sound-based only.
The focus on academic A/V essays implies that the contributions themselves need to contain the characteristics of academic publications, for instance, in their vocabulary, in their attention to theory and methodology, and in the rigorous and systematic nature of their analysis. At the same time, the A/V Section will welcome contributions with hybrid affiliations to different fields, for instance, by articulating artistic and academic approaches, including A/V essays that integrate elements from literature, theatre, and dance. The A/V Section also strongly prefers contributions that creatively deploy the use of the audio/visual mode (avoiding A/V work with only academic lecturing). Finally, A/V essays can be in any language, but when languages other than English are used, English-friendly measures are required.
The A/V section has no thematic a prioris, as the usage of the audio/visual mode of communication renders it relevant. At the same time, A/V essays that deal with communication-related themes are particularly welcome. The target audience of the A/V Section thus remains an academically informed audience, which implies that the A/V Section will not publish contributions that are primarily aimed at reaching (larger) audiences outside academia, as part of a science communication strategy.
Mediální studia / Media Studies is an established academic journal that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Financed by the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, at Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences, the journal is diamond open access, and, in other words, does not charge publication fees and makes its publications freely available. The journal’s main editor-in-chief is Kateřina Turková, and the A/V Section’s editor-in-chief is Nico Carpentier. The A/V Section is affiliated with the Multimodal Communication Research (MCR) of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).
For questions, please contact Nico Carpentier at medialnistudia.avessays@fsv.cuni.cz.
More information can be found at the links below:
The journal website: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/
The A/V Section webpage: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/avessays/
The journal’s submission website: https://ms.vedeckecasopisy.cz/
The detailed A/V essays submission guidelines: https://medialnistudia.fsv.cuni.cz/en/detailed-av-submission-guidelines/
A/V essays submission deadline:
15 September 2026