Issue nr. 2 vol. 12 (2025) of the Lingue Culture Mediazioni / Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM) Journal will focus on the following theme: Discourse and the Contemporary Chinese Media and will be edited by Chiara Bertulessi (Università degli Studi dell’Insubria), Lutgard Lams (KU Leuven), Bettina Mottura (Università degli Studi di Milano)

The complete Call for Papers can be found at: https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/announcement/view/96

This thematic issue builds on the concept of “discourse” as a valuable starting point and analytical lens for studying contemporary media in the Chinese-speaking world. It values the need to critically adapt discourse-based approaches to account for the socio-political, historical, and cultural specificities of the contexts under scrutiny. While acknowledging these specificities, this issue does not imply a vision of the studied contexts as “exceptional.” On the contrary, it aims to highlight the ways in which discursive approaches can be applied productively and effectively to Chinese media products.

In this sense, the issue seeks to expand on on-going scholarly discussions on studying the Chinese media through discourse-approaches, built on insights from recent academic projects, rooted in projects of the Contemporary Asia Research Centre of the University of Milan and enriched by the fruitful international exchanges stemming from the panel “Meaning Generation in Chinese Official Media Discourse” organized by Lutgard Lams and Zhang Rui at the International Pragmatics Association Conference in 2021.

The main goal is to contribute to the discussion on how Chinese media – both in Chinese and in other languages – construct and reinforce specific narratives on contemporary social, political, and economic challenges, targeting both domestic and international audiences.

Based on these premises, the thematic issue hopes to bring together contributions that adopt a discursive perspective to critically analyze Chinese media discourses on a wide range of topics relevant to contemporary Chinese societies, particularly in areas (potentially) impacting political legitimacy and public consensus. In this respect, attention is also devoted to the role of digital platforms and new technologies in shaping the agenda of traditional media.

We welcome contributions relying on frameworks and methodologies rooted in applied linguistics, such as (but not limited to): (critical) discourse analysis, corpus-assisted and multimodal critical discourse analysis, frame analysis, pragmatics, etc.

Deadlines

Deadline for papers submission: June 10th, 2025
Request for revision following peer review: by September 10th, 2025
Final version due: by October 10th, 2025
Publication: by December 2025

Contacts:
LCM-journal@ledonline.it – bettina.mottura@unimi.it  chiara.bertulessi@uninsubria.it