Call for Papers:

Revisiting Agenda-Setting Theory in the Age of AI
A special issue of the journal Communication and Change
https://link.springer.com/journal/44382/updates/27740956

Deadline for submission of abstracts and author information: June 30, 2025 (full papers by October 1, 2025)

This special issue of the Springer open-access journal Communication and Change is edited by Lei Guo, Professor of Communication at Fudan University and Associate Editor of Communication and Change, alongside Chris Vargo (guest editor), Associate Professor of Advertising, Public Relations, and Media Design at the University of Colorado Boulder and Editor-in-Chief of The Agenda Setting Journal. David Weaver, Distinguished and Roy W. Howard Professor Emeritus of Journalism at Indiana University Bloomington serves as an advisor of the special issue.

THEME:

Developed more than five decades ago (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), agenda-setting theory has long served as a cornerstone of journalism and communication research, illuminating the processes through which news media influence public opinion around the world. As we enter the age of artificial intelligence (AI), the dynamics of agenda setting are undergoing profound transformations. AI technologies—from algorithmic news curation to generative AI creating personalized content—are redefining how media agendas are constructed, disseminated, and ultimately influence the public. These new AI-driven influences urge us to reconsider the foundations of agenda-setting theory and its relevance in the evolving information environment. Simultaneously, AI offers researchers an innovative set of research tools to explore agenda-setting effects in new and impactful ways.

We invite original research articles and conceptual papers that examine the role of AI in the context of agenda-setting theory. We seek contributions from diverse cultural backgrounds and welcome cross-disciplinary research in particular. Although the issue considers a wide range of perspectives, it is focused on research rooted in the theoretical framework of “agenda setting” (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), its extensions such as agenda building, intermedia agenda setting, and agendamelding, its re-conceptualizations, as well as its interactions with other theoretical frameworks.

We encourage submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. CONTENT CURATION AND ALGORITHMIC AGENDA SETTING: Examining the role of algorithms within agenda setting in digital spaces, focused on how algorithms prioritize certain news items, shape user opinions and engagement, and potentially perpetuate biases.

2. EMERGING AGENDA SETTERS: Exploring the rise of AI-driven entities – such as AI anchors and conservational agents – as new agenda-setters, their interactions with legacy media, and their impact on public discourse.

3. INFORMATION MANIPULATION AND AGENDA SETTING: Investigating how AI technologies, such as social bots and deepfakes, are used to manipulate information to steer the agenda-setting process.

4. CORPORATE INFLUENCE ON MEDIA AGENDAS: Exploring how corporate interests, including those of billionaires, major stakeholders, and multinational corporations, shape media narratives, with a focus on how AI technologies, driven by these corporate agendas, influence news prioritization and public perceptions.

5. THEORETICAL ADVANCES OF AGENDA SETTING:

• Further explication of key developments in agenda-setting theory, including agendamelding, network agenda setting, agenda building, psychology of agenda setting, and their implications for communication research in an AI-driven media landscape.
• Re-conceptualizations of agenda setting in the age of AI.
• The interplay between agenda setting and other foundational communication theories and concepts (e.g., framing, gatekeeping, priming, and selective exposure), their intersections, and collective implications in contemporary media environments

6. METHODOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS: Exploring cutting-edge advancements in computational techniques, with a focus on leveraging AI – including large language models – to refine and enhance the study of agenda-setting dynamics.

SUBMISSION PROCESS:

Authors are invited to submit extended abstracts (approximately 1,500 words, excluding references) outlining the manuscript’s objectives and relevance to the special issue. The abstract should clearly demonstrate how the paper engages with the core theoretical framework of agenda setting. For empirical studies, please include a description of the research design.

Please submit the abstract and author information to cac@fudan.edu.cn by June 30, 2025. Notifications regarding invitations for full papers or rejections will be promptly communicated. Full papers should be submitted through the journal’s online submission system by October 1, 2025.

For any inquiries about the special issue, please contact the editor, Lei Guo, at guo_lei@fudan.edu.cn.