Call for papers for the Journal of Media and Rights

The open-access Journal of Media and Rights (JMR) invites submissions for publication consideration, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on the intersection of media and rights. As global challenges to rights intensify—often shaped by media—JMR seeks original research exploring how media practices, texts, and industries impact the realisation of rights. We encourage contributions that engage with the PANEL principles—Participation, Accountability, Non-Discrimination and Equality, Empowerment, and Legality—to offer fresh perspectives on this critical and timely field.

Watch this video for a step-by-step guide on submitting to the journal—while demonstrated on a different journal, the process remains the same!

Please see the focus and scope below for more details
The Journal of Media and Rights (JMR) aims to provide an innovative and diverse platform for the presentation and discussion of original research linking media scholarship with rights-based scholarship. This unique linkage is explored in various sociopolitical and cultural contexts in the quest for intellectual understanding of the positive and/or negative impact that evolving media approaches have on the expression and realisation of rights. A core element of JMR is the exploration of rights (human or otherwise) via the close analysis of media texts such as films, television, radio, podcasts, and other forms of online media. In this way, JMR includes cutting-edge discussions on the semiotics, narrative and contextual meaning that can be derived by analysing media texts from a rights-based perspective and vice versa. JMR also examines rights-related concerns connected to the media industries themselves. This includes, for instance, assessing the media industries from a rights-based perspective in order to scrutinise working practices and industry structures. The intention is to in this way contribute to the improvement and development of approaches to producing media that have human rights, sustainability, and conservation messaging as central concerns. Significantly, the scope of the journal’s critical engagement with media discourses on rights includes a platform for practice-based as well as practice-led researchers. Exhibiting such research artefacts alongside critical reflections on those artefacts provides a unique outlet for innovative approaches in media and rights research. JMR thus adds a novel dimension to traditional scholarship in this area while also participating actively in the contemporary media landscape. Moreover, JMR serves an important function in addressing contemporary realities where rights are deliberately restricted – often also with the help of different forms of media. Globally, the sociocultural moment in which we currently live is characterised by the rise of populism, factionalism and deliberate attacks on facts and truth. In several instances, media are being politicised and even weaponised as part of a widespread attack on rights (e.g., reproductive rights, workers’ rights, climate change, indigenous rights, to name but a few). JMR addresses a pressing need to draw attention to these developments and, in so doing, serves as a crucial reminder that media creators and scholars occupy an important position in offsetting those who would see the rights of humans, animals and the environment denied.

JMR is therefore interdisciplinary and welcomes papers that investigate the linkages between media and rights from a variety of perspectives. These may include, but are not limited to, perspectives coming from:

• film studies
• television studies
• communication studies
• journalism
• memory studies
• political science
• international relations
• human rights law
• philosophy
• psychology
• anthropology
• sociology
• cultural studies
• theology.

The thematic scope of JMR is thus broad in so far as contributions consider a form (or multiple forms) of media within the interdisciplinary confines of the PANEL principles of rights-based approaches:

• Participation
• Accountability
• Non-Discrimination and Equality
• Empowerment
• Legality.

Quick links:

• Submissions guidelines
• Publication procedure
• Publication fees
• Editorial board

Historic data

The inspiration for JMR is quite simply that such a concentrated focus on media and rights is needed. Not only is its mission to shine a light on the linkages between media and rights, but it also aims to provide a platform for a diverse range of scholars in an area where their perspectives interface – including practice-based and practice-led research.

There are several places where scholars publish on this topic, but the opportunities are scattered and often difficult to locate. JMR is a one-stop-shop where scholars can access articles, artefacts, reviews, case studies, and discussions from Global South as well as Global North perspectives. JMR is, therefore, more than a journal, it is a global network where like-minded scholars and practitioners can find an opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary reflection about the linkages between media and rights. These exchanges may take place purely from a theoretical vantage point or through considering the impact of practical artefacts and industry outputs.

Publication frequency

The journal publishes one issue annually. Articles are published online when ready for publication and then printed in an end-of-year compilation. Additional issues may be published for special events (e.g. conferences) and when special themes are addressed.

Open access
This is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution.