Call for papers
ZER. Journal of Communication Studies. (59)
"Cultural industries and platforms: new economic and political challenges”
Guest Editors:Guillermo Mastrini, National University of Quilmes (UNQ), in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Martín Becerra National University of Quilmes (UNQ), in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Submission deadline: September 15, 2025.
This special issue will be published in the number 59 of ZER Journal of Communication (November/December 2025).
Over the last 15 years, a model of production and distribution of cultural content has been consolidated, in which internet platforms have occupied an increasingly predominant place. Their emergence has posed a challenge to the traditional model of cultural industries that has been expressed in a serious crisis of its economic system. Given this panorama, there is a need to reestablish balances between interests and forces in conflict, and in this framework some actors demand greater state intervention in the establishment of new rules of the game. This situation has been revealed to be present in European and Latin American countries in the face of the advent of a platform ecosystem largely dominated by American companies.
The efforts made by the European Union in the DSA and DMA laws sanctioned to protect users and companies in its territory are too recent to show results. In Canada, the Online News Act has achieved little progress and generated various problems for users and small companies. For its part, Latin America has not yet reached a consensus on protection regulations while its cultural industries suffer from the consequences of a peripheral position on the international stage. So far, there is no “Brussels effect” in Latin America.
Meanwhile, the portion of advertising and sales of cultural products and services that is absorbed by platforms is increasing day by day and the income of local cultural industries is threatened.
Likewise, the introduction of generative Artificial Intelligence technologies in the cultural production process alters the functions and relative power of the agents and links that participate in the integral circuit of creation of cultural content. This also strengthens the role of the conglomerates that own the large digital platforms, whose data-extractive business model facilitates the provision of gigantic training banks as a source of new technological developments. Hence, the concentration of power in an increasingly platform-driven sector is a trend that conditions the present and future of cultural production.
The main topics that this monograph will address will be:
- Crisis of the income model of cultural industries
- New emerging business models: is there room for alternatives in the era of platforms?
- State intervention in defense of companies and users. - Loss of sovereignty of national states in the regulation of cultural industries.
- Creative labor and platforms
- Copyright and platforms
- Artificial Intelligence and cultural production
Guillermo Mastrini
Guillermo Mastrini holds a PhD. in Ciencias de la Información from the Complutense University of Madrid (2014). He is an Argentine researcher and lecturer, specializing in mass media policies and the economics of culture. He obtained a degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. He served as director of the Communication Sciences (UBA) career between 2006 and 2008 years. He is a professor at the National University of Quilmes, where he also directed the Master's in Cultural Industries. He is also a tenured professor of the Chair of Communication Policies and Planning at the Faculty of Social Sciences (UBA) and a professor at the National University of General San Martín (where he teaches the subject "Culture and Communication Industries" of the Specialization in Cultural Management and Cultural Policies). Additionally, he is an independent researcher at CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas).
Martín Becerra
Professor of Communication Policy and Media Regulation at the National University of Quilmes (UNQ), in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he serves as Director of the ICEP Center (“Cultural Industries and Public Space”). Professor of Information and Communication Technologies Policies at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Member of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina (CONICET).
Author and co-author of more than 10 books, 35 book chapters and 40 articles in specialized journals on media concentration and convergence, public service media, Latin American media systems and political economy of media and communication, published in both Spanish and English. Several of these publications are required readings in graduate courses at several universities in Argentina, the rest of Latin America and Spain.He holds a PhD in Information Sciences (Journalism), Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (2001).