Call for Papers for the Special Issue “Imperialism, Information, Communication and Culture in the Age of Digitalisation”

The International Electronic Journal of Political Economy of Information, Communication and Culture (Eptic Online) invites interested parties to submit papers for the Special Issue “Imperialism, Information, Communication and Culture in the Age of Digitalisation”. Articles must be submitted by 28 February 2026. The issue is expected to be published in June 2026.

The relationship between imperialism and information, communication and culture (ICC) is not recent. Decades ago, authors pointed out the role of the ICC in the advancement of imperialism and its manifestation in the cultural industry and the media (Schiller, 1976, 1978). In Latin America, these approaches were also discussed under the umbrella of the notion of “cultural dependence” (Pasquali, 1980). EPC approaches offered critical reflections and nuances to these theses, noting that the problems were not limited to the influx of external companies, services, and content into countries in the Global South (Bolaño, 2015; Sparks, 2012).

More recently, the theme of imperialism has been revisited by some authors in the fields of communication, information, and culture (Sulehria, 2019). In light of the advance of digital conglomerates, especially digital platforms, the concept has also been used to name this process (Jin, 2015; 2025). With the reconfiguration of global information, communication and culture systems in the age of digitalisation, the theoretical approach to imperialism has also been expanded to encompass the production, circulation and consumption of digitalised products and services (Nothias, 2025). While the controversial concept of digital colonialism (Kwet, 2019; Faustino & Lippold, 2023) has gained much more visibility, the explanatory key of imperialism has been less explored.

Although imperialism has never ceased to be a dimension of capitalist evolution, recent events indicate a resurgence of imperialist agendas and movements, such as the genocide in Palestine, the worsening conflict in Sudan, and the most recent interventions by the United States in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.  

Under these conditions, information and communication take on an unusual centrality in the mode of production, while forms of legitimisation change with the implementation of a new global system of culture, to use Furtado's expression (1978), based on extensively horizontalised and interactive forms of communication, whose democratic appearance hides the essence of a technical system designed for control and surveillance on a massive and global scale, with an expanded capacity for manipulation concentrated in a few American companies, whose power of censorship has proven to be superior to that of the Cultural Industry of the 20th century. Under these conditions, it is the historical task of scholars of the Political Economy of Communication and Culture (PECC) to clarify the coherence of this articulation between imperialism and the rise of digital platforms, without neglecting the role of traditional media and international news agencies, and the contradictions involved. 

Editors: Dr Farooq Sulehria (BNU, Pakistan, and Sodertorn, Sweden), Dr Jonas C. L. Valente (Oxford Internet Institute, UK, and UFC, Brazil), and Dr Fabricio Zanghelini (UFF, Brazil).

The Special Issue welcomes submissions on:

The dossier welcomes submissions on:

- The concept of imperialism and its history in the field of communication;

- The notion of imperialism as a key to understanding recent transformations in information, communication and culture;

- The contemporary role of information, communication and culture in imperialism in the 21st century;

- How information, communication and culture transform nations and imperialist agendas;

- Digital imperialism, driven by platforms and digital corporations;

- Imperialism and asymmetric global flows of information, communication and culture;

- Attacks on freedom of expression and the right to information and communication;

- New and old forms of dependence related to information, communication and culture in nations and regions on the periphery of capitalism in the face of imperialist advances;

- Use of data for surveillance and promotion of disinformation and hybrid wars;

- The role of digital corporations in conflicts such as the genocide in Palestine;

- Attacks on freedom of expression and the right to information and communication;

- Impacts on subjectivity and forms of resistance to digital imperialism and related to information, communication and culture. 

References:

BOLAÑO, César. The culture industry, information and capitalism. Springer, 2015.

BOLAÑO, César Ricardo Siqueira. Campo aberto para a crítica da epistemologia da comunicação. Aracaju: Edise, 2015.

BOLAÑO, César. Ucrânia: imperialismo e guerra da informação. Outras Palavras, 21 mar. 2022. Disponível em: https://outraspalavras.net/geopoliticaeguerra/ucrania-imperialismo-e-guerra-da-informacao/. Acesso em: 6 jan. 2026.

FAUSTINO, Deivison; LIPPOLD, Walter. Colonialismo digital: por uma crítica hacker-fanoniana. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2023.

FURTADO, Celso. Criatividade e dependência na civilização industrial. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1978.

JIN, Dal Yong. Digital Platforms, Imperialism and Political Culture. Routledge, 2015.

KWET, Michael. Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class, 60(4), 2019, 3-26.

NOTHIAS, Toussaint. An intellectual history of digital colonialism. Journal of Communication, 2025.

PASQUALI, Antonio. Comunicación y cultura de masas, Venezuela, Monte Avila Latinoamericana, 1980.

SCHILLER, Herbert I. Communication and Cultural Domination, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1976, 98-103.

SCHILLER, Herbert I. Media and imperialism. Revue française d'études américaines, p. 269-281, 1978.

SPARKS, Colin. Media and cultural imperialism reconsidered. Chinese Journal of Communication, 5(3), 2012, 281–299.

SULEHRIA, Farooq. Media imperialism in India and Pakistan. Routledge, 2018.