Call for papers Vol. 21 / N° 2

InMediaciones de la Comunicación

Volume 21 / N° 2 (July-December 2026)

We are pleased to inform that the call for papers is now open for Volume 21 / No. 2 (July-December 2026) of InMediaciones de la Comunicación, academic journal published since 1998 by Universidad ORT Uruguay.

The journal focuses on the publication of original articles and the dissemination of interviews, essays, and research results in the field of communication and related disciplines, with a special focus on the processes of social mediatization and the study of contemporary media phenomena. The content is aimed at researchers, professors, undergraduate and graduate students, and individuals interested in all areas of communication. Before publication, manuscripts are initially reviewed by the Associate Editors, the Academic Committee, and the Guest Editors of each issue, and are then evaluated using a double-blind review system with the intervention of external referees.

The journal maintains an open access policy, accepting submissions in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and authors pay no fees for the processing or publishing of papers. InMediaciones de la Comunicación is published in both print and digital formats with the aim of promoting the open publication of articles that are the result of the work carried out by researchers and fostering the approach of a wide variety of topics and issues that traverse the field of communication. Over the years, it has received contributions from renowned researchers and academics, who offer their perspectives on the debates sparked by the ongoing renewal of communication phenomena in Latin America and around the world.

InMediaciones de la Comunicación accepts papers submissions to be reviewed in its THEMATIC and FREE sections.

THEMATIC SECTION

Volume 21 / N° 2 (July-December 2026)

THE PATH OF SIGNS IN COMMUNICATION. The Semiotic Approach to Mediatization

Fundamentals of the Call

In one of his Harvard Lectures in 1903, Charles Sanders Peirce posed a question that he recognized as too difficult to answer with the knowledge available at the time: “How do [symbols or words] produce their effect?”. This is not a rhetorical question, but rather a program for future research, in which semiotics experts are still engaged more than a century later. There, Peirce introduces the notion of mediation to describe an effect that does not consist of symbols acting directly on matter. Instead, mediation is a non-dyadic action that operates concretely in the world (on mundane actions, on thought, on feelings) through signs. Representation, symbol, and “mediation” are synonyms for the “general principle operative in the real world,” which in its most abstract form Peirce calls “Thirdness”. In this issue of InMediaciones de la Comunicación on semiotics and mediatization, we open a call for papers that continues to revolve around Peirce’s question and seeks to understand the enigmatic mediating influence about whose operation he is so certain. Although natural language is the primary example of mediation, this issue proposes to consider mediation in a more comprehensive way, as it occurs in other forms such as moving images, television, radio, art objects, performance arts, advertising, intermediality, as well as various other modalities of synchronous and deferred interaction with the media.   

It is worth noting that in the evolution of Peircean thought, since 1890, representation is replaced by mediation, given that Peirce judged the second term to be broader and more comprehensive than the first (Nöth, 2011). Peirce is attracted to the terms medium and mediation, and in his intellectual maturity, he struggled to explain exactly what he meant by the term sign. Hence, it is not uncommon to see him use a phrase like “medium of communication” as a synonym for sign, and he once wondered if instead of sign, “shouldn’t I say medium?”.

An extensive bibliography of media studies uses the semiotic model for the sign and its action (or semiosis). By semiosis, Peirce writes, “I understand an action, or influence, which is, or implies, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant”. Thus understood, a sign is that which mediates between its object (that which the sign is about) and its interpretant (that which is produced by bringing the object to an interpreting mind). The three guest editors of this issue of InMediaciones de la Comunicación have, in their own ways, adopted various Peircean concepts in the development of their research. Martin Lefebvre has turned to Peirce to investigate moving and still images, publishing studies on montage (Lefebvre & Furstenau, 2002), special effects (Lefebvre, 2022a), photography (Lefebvre, 2022b; 2007) and aesthetics (2007). João Queiroz has studied literary intermedial technology (Queiroz & Fernandes, 2024), intersemiotic translation (Queiroz & Atã, 2023; Queiroz, 2019), literature and photography (Fernandes & Queiroz, 2022), semiotic artifacts (Queiroz & Bitarello, 2014). Fernando Andacht has worked on semiotics and documentary (Andacht, 2018; Andacht & Opolski, 2017), reality shows (Andacht & Marquioni 2019) and humor in a web series (Andacht, 2021). Many others have sought to make use of Peirce’s theories to investigate the semiotic aspect of mediation in relation to various forms of communication and, particularly, the media. These include John Durham Peters (1999; 2015), who draws on Peirce to study the entire universe of communication, and Umberto Eco (1979; 1990; 1997), who has studied literature and images, among many other communicative phenomena, through Peirce’s semiotics. Just as linguist Tony Jappy (2013), for example, published Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics.

Through theoretical elements of semiotics, this issue invites us to continue thinking about what the inescapable foundation of semiosis implies for understanding the global and local processes of mediated communication—whether practical, daily, or private—such as that carried out by people on WhatsApp, or the more social and gregarious communication that takes place, for example, on Facebook, Instagram, or X. From this theoretical-analytical perspective, we can also study the emergence of enunciative figures such as influencers, who replace the classic concept of opinion leaders. In this field, it becomes evident the relevance of the interpretant sign, or more precisely, the importance of the various types of interpretant signs for the study of audiences and the reception of media communication (Andacht, 2025). From the outdated model of the hypodermic needle, through opinion leaders (Lazarsfeld & Katz, 1955), to those who occupy a very prominent position on Twitch and come to have an influence on contemporary political disputes (Marantz, 2025).

In short, the call for papers invites media communication researchers to reflect on semiosis and its importance for understanding global and local communication processes in everyday, private, or shared contexts. Signs—the “medium,” Peirce would say—are all around us, whether we are using WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and all other forms of social media, watching movies, series, or television programs, going to the museum, checking out the news or sports broadcasts, browsing the internet, or reading magazines or literature. Understanding these signs, how they represent their objects and what they produce in their users in the various contexts in which they are used, is of paramount importance for communication studies broadly conceived. From the rise of internet influencers to fake news and deepfakes, from traditional works of art to artifacts produced by artificial intelligence, the relevance of interpreting signs—or more specifically, the relevance of the various ways we have to use or interpret them—remains an essential challenge (Andacht 2024b; Lefebvre 2022).  

In this call for papers, we seek to bring together studies that address the various aspects of mediatization, both old and new, carried out from a Peircean perspective. We seek to gather articles that investigate the action of signs, but we also invite those who study the phenomenological (or phaneroscopic) categories on which sign action is based and the pragmatic conception that frames Peirce’s semiotics.

Topics for the Submission of Papers

• In what ways is Peirce’s conception of sign mediation useful to communication scholars in understanding media?
• Can Peirce’s taxonomy of signs shed light on different media genres and practices?
• As new forms and instruments of mediatization develop (from email to text messaging, from social media to the use of platforms like Zoom, Teams, or WhatsApp), which often intermingle images and words to a degree hitherto unheard of, are we also developing new uses of signs, new semiotic habits?
• Can Peirce’s semiotics help us navigate the media landscape now populated by fake news, deepfakes generated by computers and artificial intelligence, images and artifacts produced in this way, and imperceptible special effects?
• Can/should we still distinguish between documentary (or media that references truth) and fiction in the media?
• Is it semiotically relevant to differentiate between watching a film in a movie theater or on the bus with our cell phone connected to a platform like Netflix or Amazon?
• A large number of media artifacts and types of discourse still need to be analyzed through the lens of Peirce’s thought: fan discourse and textual appropriation (textual poaching), the circulation of memes, advertising, comics, television news, virtual reality, etc. What are their semiotic strategies, if any?
• Is it possible to apply a Peircean approach to the problems of aesthetics? (the nature of style; the hermeneutics of the work of art; the ontology of aesthetic qualities; the problem of expressiveness; etc.)

Guest Editors

Fernando Andacht. PhD in Communication and Languages ​​from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bergen (Norway). Master’s degree in Linguistics from Ohio University (United States). Bachelor’s degree in Literature from the Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Level II Researcher, National System of Researchers, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (Uruguay). Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in Communication and Languages ​​at the Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná (Brazil) and in the Doctorate in Semiotics at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina). Full Professor at the School of Information and Communication, Universidad de la República. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Research Center for Linguistic and Semiotic Studies, Indiana University (United States) and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Arbeitsstelle für Semiotik, Technische Universität (Germany). His research focuses on media, culture, and everyday life from a Peircean semiotic perspective. He has published 12 books and over 100 articles and chapters on the semiotic analysis of media communication and its impact on society. His latest book is Signos del Imaginario Cotidiano. Una guía para interpretar nuestra vida mediática (2024, Planeta/Paidós).

João Queiroz. PhD in Communication and Semiotics from the Universidade Católica de São Paulo (Brazil). He is a professor in the Graduate Program in Linguistics at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil), where he also coordinates the Iconicity Research Group. He is also a professor at the Institute of Letters of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. He received postdoctoral fellowships in Intelligent Systems at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil) and in Philosophy of Biology at the Institute of Biology at the Universidade Federal de Bahia (Brazil), as well as at the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Spain). He teaches training courses in cognitive semiotics, Peircean philosophy, and intermediality studies. He is co-editor of the Commens Digital Companion to Charles S. Peirce, alongside Mats Bergman and Sami Paavola. Website: https://joaoqueirozsemiotics.wordpress.com

Martin Lefebvre. PhD in Semiotics from the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). Professor and Director of the Mel Hoppenheim Film School at Concordia University (Canada). He worked at the University of Alberta (Canada) and the Université Laval (Canada). He was a visiting professor at the Université Paris 1 Sorbonne-Panthéon (France), the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), the Université de Poitiers (France), and the Université Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle (France). He is the editor-in-chief of Recherches sémiotiques / Semiotic Inquiry. He has published numerous articles in various academic journals around the world (Critical Inquiry, New Literary History, Screen, Semiotica, CiNéMaS, Point de vue, RSSI, Signata, Protée, Théorème, Semiotic Review, Iconics, Theory, Culture & Society). Some of his books are Psycho. De la Figure au Musée Imaginaire (1998, L'Harmattan), Eisenstein: l'ancien et le Nouveau –with Dominique Chateau and François Jost– (2000, Ed. Sorbonne), Truffaut et ses doubles (2013, Vrin), Techniques et technologies du cinéma –directed alongside André Gaudreault– (2015, Presses universitaires de Rennes), Special Effects on Screen. Faking the View from Méliès to Motion Capture –edited with Marc Furstenau– (2022, Amsterdam University Press). His research focuses on the semiotic uses of images (still or moving), the history of film theory, aesthetics and the philosophy of language, with a special interest in the work of Charles S. Peirce.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 15, 2026

PUBLICATION DATE: July 1, 2026 (continuous publication)

Journal website – registration and submission of applications:

https://revistas.ort.edu.uy/inmediaciones-de-la-comunicacion

Submission guidelines for papers:

https://revistas.ort.edu.uy/inmediaciones-de-la-comunicacion/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Journal contact emails:

cossia@ort.edu.uy / inmediaciones@ort.edu.uy / lcossia@yahoo.com.ar /

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Reference bibliography

Aguiar, D. & Queiroz, J. (2013). Semiosis and intersemiotic translation. Semiotica, 196, 283-292. https://philarchive.org/archive/AGUSAI

Andacht, F. & Marquioni, E. (2019). (Con)vivendo com a comida: MasterChef e a produção de afeto midiático. E-Compós, 22(1), 21-44.

Andacht, F. & Opolski, D. (2017). A representação audiovisual do real a partir de uma abordagem das falas dos personagens. Comunicação & Inovação, 18(36), 7-22.

Andacht, F. (2017). Elementos para revisitar la distinción persona/personaje en el cine documental de Eduardo Coutinho. Rebeca - Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Cinema e Audiovisual, 6(11), 61-92.

Andacht, F. (2018). Peircean semiotic realism: the real as a rainbow-like synechistic process. Degrés, 173/174, 3-20.

Andacht, F. (2021). Una leve travesía semiótica por el humor, el musement y la revelación inesperada. ACTIO NOVA. Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada, 5, 206-226.

Andacht, F. (2024a). Signos del Imaginario Cotidiano. Una guía para interpretar nuestra mediática Planeta/Paidós.

Andacht, F. (2024b). Media audiences as explorers of interpretant signs and vulnerable frames. In Hill, A. & Lunt, P. (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences (pp. 49-60). Routledge.

Ata, P. & Queiroz, J. (2022). Tradução Intersemiótica, Artefato Cognitivo e Criatividade: da perspectiva visual ao balé clássico. Repertório, 38, 87-105.

Eco, U. (1979). Lector in fabula: la cooperazione interpretativa neitestinarrativi. Bompiani.

Eco, U. (1990). The Limits of Interpretation. Indiana University Press.

Eco, U. (1997). Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Fernandes, A. & Queiroz, J. (2022). Semiotic relation in literary photobooks: the case of Leminski’s Quarenta Clicsem Curitiba. Semiotica  249, 19-42.

Fernandes, A. L.; Queiroz, J. (2025). A Invenção do Fotolivro de Literatura. NUMA Editorial.

Jappy, T. (2013). Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics. Bloomsbury.

Johansen, J. D. Literary Discourse. A Semiotic-Pragmatic Approach to Literature. University of Toronto Press.

Lefebvre, M. & Furstenau, M. (2002). Digital Editing and Montage: The Vanishing Celluloid and Beyond. CiNéMAS, 13(1-2), 69-107.

Lefebvre, M. (2007). The Art of Pointing. On Peirce, Indexicality and Photographic Images. In Elkins, J. (ed.), The Art Seminar: Photography Theory (pp. 220-244). Routledge. 

Lefebvre, M. (2022a). Mind(ing) the Gap. In Lefebvre, M. & Furstenau, M. (eds), Special Effects on the Screen. Faking the View from Méliès to Motion Capture (pp. 37-88). Amsterdam University Press.

Lefebvre, M. (2022b). Photography and Semiotics: Use and Purpose. Critical Inquiry, 48(4), 742-773. 

Marantz, A. (2025). The Battle for the Bros. Young men have gone maga. Can the left win them back? New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-battle-for-the-bros

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Peters, J. D. (1999). Speaking into the Air. A History of the Idea of Communication. The University of Chicago Press.

Peters, J. D. (2015). The Marvelous Clouds. Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media. The University of Chicago Press.

Queiroz, J. & Aguiar, D. (2015). C. S. Peirce and Intersemiotic Translation. In Trifonas, P. (Ed.), International Handbook of Semiotics (pp. 201-215). Springer.

Queiroz, J. & Ata, P. (2023). Intersemiotic Translation as Semiosis - a Peircean Perspective. In Biglari, A. (ed.), Open Semiotics - Texts, Images, Arts (pp. 195-211). L’Harmattan.

Queiroz, J. & Fernandes, A. L. (2022). Tradução Intersemiótica, Artefato Cognitivo e Criatividade: da perspectiva visual ao balé clássico. Repertório, 38, 88-105.

Queiroz, J. & Fernandes, A. L. (2023). Palavras dos editores convidados. O perfeito cozinheiro das almas deste mundo: o experimento intermidiático e multiautoral de Oswald de Andrade. Alea Estudos Neolatinos, 25(3), 347-367.

Queiroz, J. & Queiroz & Bitarello, B. (2014). Embodied semiotic artefacts: On the role of the skin as a semiotic niche. Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, 12(1), 75-90.

Scolari, C. (2013). Narrativas transmedia: cuando todos los medios cuentan. Deusto