Call for paper: Multimodal literacy and media literacy

Multimodal literacy is an established framework for understanding how meaning is created through different modes of communication. These include written and spoken language, images, sound, gesture, movement, spatial design and digital interfaces. Media literacy, meanwhile, focuses on the critical analysis of how media messages are produced, represented and circulated. It also considers how these messages are shaped by technological systems, institutional interests and wider cultural and political contexts. Both concepts now extend beyond individual skills. They also address the social practices, power relations and forms of participation that shape communication.

Together, multimodal and media literacies allow researchers to examine both what messages communicate and how they create meaning. This includes how meaning is organised across modes, how audiences interpret it, whose perspectives are privileged and whose interests may be advanced by representations. These questions are increasingly important as digital platforms, data visualisation, generative artificial intelligence and synthetic media reshape education, work, culture and public life. Research in this area is therefore central to understanding contemporary learning, creative production, political communication, social participation and the critical evaluation of information.

This Collection welcomes research examining multimodal and media literacies as social, cultural, educational and political practices. We encourage contributions from across the humanities and social sciences. Relevant fields include education, linguistics, literacy studies, media and communication studies, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, digital humanities, information science, literature, art and design, and film studies.