Navigating the Hypermedia Landscape: Political, Cultural, and Social Transformations

About this Research Topic

Background

The field of political science and sociology has evolved significantly due to digital media’s profound influence, reshaping how individuals and communities engage in political and civic life. The advent of hypermedia merges with the dynamics of pop culture, communication, identity and social behaviors in a post-truth era.
Redefining citizen participation, voter behavior, and identity-driven political involvement, these transformations affect both the strategies of communication and the intricacies of political engagement and civic participation, challenging conventional paradigms and demanding new investigative lenses. Recent literature underscores the need for a deeper understanding of how digital platforms and media discourses shape participatory dynamics and civic identities in contemporary societies. Specifically, this topic aims to explore the evolving interactions between citizens, political leaders, and institutions, as well as how digital transformation is influencing political participation and civic engagement. By analyzing emerging online mobilization, activism, and identity-based political behaviors, this topic seeks to understand the transformative influence of digital media on participatory dynamics. The themes of interest include fan-based political engagement, the mediatization of leadership, and the reconfiguration of civic identity, particularly in digital spaces where traditional boundaries are constantly shifting.
In social dynamics these changes redefine personal and social identity and presentation of the self, interpersonal communication, consumption behavior and lifestyles. Digitalization has introduced new behavioral models and values, such as publicly sharing one’s life via social media, overturning notions of privacy and intimacy and often pushing towards greater narcissism, idealizations of personality or, on the contrary, towards a hyper-realistic narrative of one’s social life. At the same time, this evolution has led to phenomena of mediatized transformation of personality or forms of technological dependence, with negative implications for mental and physical health, as well as unexpected consequences such as loneliness, cyberbullying or social revenge actions. Digital technologies and social media have also transformed the dynamics of narration and presentation of the person, who can behave and create narrative constructions typical of similar cultural worlds such as that of professional athletes and stars. Sport itself is undergoing a similar transformation, shifting its essence toward new communicative frontiers and collective imagination. Furthermore, media transformation has opened infinite possibilities for the exploration of new interests, although it has also reduced the use of traditional activities in favor of virtual experiences, such as the use of online experiences, hyper-exposure to social media, e-sports and phenomena of social estrangement.

The scope of this Research Topic encompasses a wide range of themes related to hypermedia and its impact on the political, sociological and cultural landscape. By focusing on the implications of the transformation in a hypermediated society, this topic welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that critically assess the intersection of hypermedia and political engagement, transformations of political and social communication, sociological consequences and transformations in sociocultural dynamics.

Specifically, we welcome articles on:
• The role of hypermedia in reshaping political participation and activism.
• The impact of digital media on political leadership and citizen-leader relationships.
• Fan-based political dynamics and their implications for civic participation.
• The intersection of hypermedia with identity-based political involvement and digital advocacy.
• Online mobilization and grassroots movements facilitated by social platforms.
• New communicative approaches of political leadership as celebrity and star.
• Nostalgia, memory (and no memory) and social media: how the past becomes future?
• Starization of individuals and collective behaviors in social dynamics such as social mediated communication, consumption and sports.
• New narrative and self-narrative communicative forms through hypermediated transformations of individuals and social groups.
• History of “pop” ideas: from artistic communication to public communication applications in digital society.
• Digital technologies (sensors, wearables, double data body, social media, etc.) and the representation/transformation of individual sports.

This Research Topic encourages submissions that foster a deeper understanding of how digital transformations shape contemporary political communication, participatory behaviors, civic identities and democratic processes, as well as changes in social values and behaviors, analyzing how these transformations have repercussions on the development of personal identities and interpersonal relationships, as well as on sociocultural processes and the dynamics of daily leisure activities, consumption and sports practices. Additionally, submitted articles should explore these themes within the framework of contemporary digital transformations, adhering to an interdisciplinary approach that enriches both political science and sociology. Contributions can include original research, reviews, and theoretical or methodological advances.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Hypermedia transformation, political leadership, digital media, political participation, identity and fandom, post-ideological communication

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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