CALL FOR PAPERS
Fatherhood & New Forms
Submission Deadline: 30 Oct, 2026
Issue Editors: Asst. Prof. Yunus Ergen
The Journal of Media Literacy Studies, Turkey’s first academic journal dedicated to media literacy, continues its scholarly activities with the aim of providing a publication platform that addresses issues directly shaping everyday life, including children and media, family and media, media analyses, digital games, digitalization and ethics, digitalization and law, and media literacy education. In this context, the theme of the journal’s ninth issue, to be published in December 2026, has been determined as “Fatherhood and New Forms.”
Within academic studies situated at the intersection of the social sciences and humanities that address family and related issues, one relatively underexplored topic remains fatherhood and the various forms it takes. Beyond being a mere figure, the father constitutes an identity that has been historically shaped by cultural meanings, social expectations, and ideological burdens. The values, belief systems, and everyday practices of each historical period define the attributes through which fatherhood is understood. However, in contemporary times, these definitions have increasingly diversified, and new balances have emerged among concepts such as authority, pressure, violence, responsibility, care, emotional intimacy, and sharing.
In everyday life, fatherhood has become not only a social role but also a field of experience that is continually redefined by changing economic conditions, transforming family structures, fragile relationships, and the effects of digitalization. Media stands out as both a witness and a constitutive element of this transformation. Content produced in traditional and digital media simultaneously contributes to the reproduction, modification, and transformation of paternal roles and forms while enabling these roles to be questioned and critically examined. One of the central concerns of media literacy education is the form of adulthood that guides children, who represent our collective future. In this regard, the December 2026 issue of our journal, under the title “Fatherhood and New Forms,” will feature studies that address the phenomenon of fatherhood generally through its modes of everyday experience and, more specifically, from the perspectives of media and communication. The aim is to bring together research that discusses the cultural, social, psychological, and political dimensions of fatherhood and proposes new interpretive frameworks along the axes of representation, discourse, identity, and practice.
As an academic periodical that seeks to address research and education together—without neglecting current developments and emerging literacy practices in their theoretical and practical dimensions, The Journal of Media Literacy Studieswelcomes contributions not only from academics and researchers, but also from educators, parents (with a particular emphasis on fathers), and media and communication professionals.
Subthemes of “Fatherhood and New Forms”:
- Fatherhood as a Social Role and Figure
- The Construction of Fatherhood in Contemporary Times
- New Forms and Roles from Masculinity to Fatherhood
- The Father in Intra-Familial Communication
- The Father as an Educator and Authority Figure
- Safety, Trust, and Fatherhood
- Father-Child Relationships
- Father-Mother Relationships
- Forms of the Social Visibility of Fatherhood
- The Father Figure in Cultural Memory
- Being a Father in Political Discourse
- Fatherhood in Literature
- Fatherhood in Cinema
- The Mediatization of Fatherhood
- Fatherhood Narratives and Representations in Traditional Media
- Fatherhood Narratives and Representations in Digital Media
- Fatherhood and Performative Dimensions on Social Media
- Constructions of Fatherhood in Digital Games
- The Father as a Digital Parent
- Media Literacy and the Role of the Father
We cordially invite you to contribute research articles and review essays to the ninth issue of The Journal of Media Literacy Studies, to be published in December 2026.
Manuscripts and review essays may be submitted via https://medyaokuryazari.org. For inquiries, please contact us at bilgi@medyaokuryazari.org, or dergi@medyaokuryazari.org.
