Article spotlight, Framing Gaza: Medical Journals and the destruction of Healthcare, by Osama Tanous, Yara Asi, Weeam Hammoudeh, David Mills, Bram Wispelwey, published in the Communication, Culture and Critique special issue "Palestine as Communicative Epistemology," edited by Paula Chakravartty, Karma R. Chavez, Dina Matar; Volume 19, Issue 1 (March 2026)

introduction: Since October 2023, people across the globe have witnessed daily images of Palestinians in Gaza facing unfathomable horrors including attacks on hospitals, patients, and healthcare workers. As the genocide has unfolded, several fronts have emerged far beyond the Gaza Strip such as attacks on freedom of expression and protest, international solidarity, journalistic integrity, and academic freedom. In the medical field, the focus of this study, multiple health workers have been fired or silenced for speaking up against the genocide. This article explores medical journals as a medium of generating knowledge about the health conditions, and the attacks on healthcare during the Gaza genocide.

Abstract: A main feature of the Israeli genocide in Gaza has been the systematic destruction of the healthcare system. The Israeli military has methodologically generated conditions that drive disease, disability, and death, while simultaneously dismantling the capability of the health system to respond. Despite a purported emphasis on issues such as health equity and social determinants of health, many influential medical bodies across the world have failed to condemn these attacks on healthcare, let alone take meaningful steps for advocacy and accountability.

Abstract continued: The authors analyze academic articles in medical journals to examine how anti-Palestinian racism dehumanizes Palestinian healthcare workers and hinders meaningful institutional solidarity. They find that violence against Palestinians is often obscured, overlooked, or justified, and argue that journal framing helps the continued targeting of healthcare infrastructure, effectively creating a 'permission structure' for mass atrocities.

How do we account for the normalization of bombing civilian infrastructures like hospitals in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran?

Read this urgent intervention by medical doctors and public health scholars on the culpability of medical journals.

Free, open access article here:

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Communication, Culture & Critique is proud to publish its first thematic issue: "Palestine as Communicative Epistemology." Volume 19, Issue 1 (March 2026). Editors: Paula Chakravartty, Karma R. Chavez, Dina Matar. White letters on red background.

Communication Culture & Critique An Official Journal of the International Communication Association Volume 19, Number 1 March 2026 Special Issue: Palestine as Communicative Epistemology Guest Editors: Paula Chakravartty, Karma R. Chavez, and Dina Matar Forum Why Palestine as communicative epistemology? PAULA CHAKRAVARTTY, KARMA R. CHAAVEZ, AND DINA MATAR The narrative struggle for Palestinian liberation An interview with Prof. Noura Erakat NABIL HASSEIN, MARIA PAZ ALMENARA, AND NADINE FATTALEH Bitification and the Gaza genocide HELGA TAWIL-SOURI On Palestinians’ insistence that Palestinian journalism matters AMAHL BISHARA Fashioning the keffiyeh as a Palestinian anti-colonial medium BERNARDITA M. YUNIS VARAS AND SARAH CATHRYN MAJED DWEIK A breakup letter with media studies NABIL ECHCHAIBI Resonance, or sympathetic vibration: A Black feminist ethic for Palestine VICTORIA NETANUS XAKA Original Articles Framing Gaza: Medical Journals and the destruction of Healthcare OSAMA TANOUS, YARA ASI, WEEAM HAMMOUDEH, DAVID MILLS, AND BRAM WISPELWEY Palestine as a laboratory: Aerial technologies, colonial violence and an origin of information-weaponry systems SEBASTIAN JAMES ROSE AND BURCE CELIK How to unsee Gaza: Israel’s visual politics in a time of genocide REBECCA L. STEIN Witnessing undone: Silence, noise and the enabling of genocide in Gaza OMAR AL-GHAZZI Algorithmic censorship, power, and resistance in the Arab region: A case study of pro-Palestinian content TAMER FARAG, FLORIAN PRIMIG, AND HANAN BADR Book Review The decolonial cautions of Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization GOLDIE OSURI

Our Aim: Our goal is to rethink how knowledge about Palestine is produced and shared. We aim to move beyond framing Palestine as merely a 'conflict' or 'laboratory' and instead highlight the lived realities of colonial violence and media complicity. By centering anti-colonial thinkers like Edward Said, Aime Cesaire, Fanon, and Sherene Seikaly, we seek to reveal which facts are communicated, and which are silenced. Ultimately, we encourage scholars to rethink methods in understanding and representing Palestine. White letters on background image featuring destroyed buildings in Gaza.

Read the full issue here: https://academic.oup.com/ccc/issue/19/1. This journal is available through most university libraries. If you are unable to access articles, please email us at cccjournal2024@gmail.com. Thank you to the authors, contributors, and reviewers whose work informs this issue. White letters on red and black backgrounds.

The Communication, Culture & Critique editorial collective is proud to publish our first thematic issue:

PALESTINE AS COMMUNICATIVE EPISTEMOLOGY

academic.oup.com/ccc/issue/19/1

Journal Article Forging a feminist approach to peer review and mentorship: the case of OSU press’s intersectional rhetorics series By Karma R Chávez and Taralee Cyphers Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 300–301, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaf046 Published: 26 December 2025 Abstract In this article, the authors reflect on their purpose in creating the Intersectional Rhetorics series with Ohio State University Press, and what the series reviewing and editorial process looks like as feminist praxis.

Last but not least in our forum on "Dismantling the Master's House" we have Karma Chávez and Taralee Cyphers.

"Forging a feminist approach to peer review and mentorship: the case of OSU press’s intersectional rhetorics series"

Check it out!

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Journal Article Citing with care: citational politics, the communication canon and the responsibility of scholarly acknowledgment Purchased Kim Fox Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 297–299, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaf042 Published: 26 December 2025 Abstract This article explores citational politics as a practice that actively constructs and sustains the communication canon. It contends that citation is not a neutral academic formality, but a political and ethical act that shapes whose scholarship becomes visible, legitimate and foundational. Drawing from critical race, feminist and decolonial perspectives, the article highlights the systemic exclusion of Black women, the least cited group in academia, and interrogates how this erasure impoverishes the field. It also identifies patterns of exclusion, from disciplinary bias to technological barriers, that limit the discoverability of Black women’s scholarship. Building on initiatives like #CommunicationSoWhite and #CiteBlackWomen, the article urges communication scholars to adopt more inclusive and reflexive citation practices. It concludes that dismantling exclusionary canons requires both individual responsibility and collective structural change, ultimately reshaping the discipline’s intellectual DNA toward equity and epistemic justice.

Up next in our forum on "Dismantling the Master's House" we have Kim Fox.

"Citing with care: citational politics, the communication canon and the responsibility of scholarly engagement"

Check it out!

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Journal Article Tips for getting your work published by an overworked journal editor Isabel Molina-Guzmán Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 294–296, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaf049 Published: 26 December 2025 Abstract In this article, I discuss the constraints today’s journal editors are facing to help authors understand what they can do to more effectively manage the process. Specifically, I share advice with authors for improving the success rates of interdisciplinary and early career scholars. I conclude with a brief discussion of my journey into editing as way to open pathways for others interested in journal editing.

Up next in our forum "Dismantling the Master's House," featuring essays on peer review of intersectional scholarship, we have Isabel Molina-Guzmán.

"Tips for getting your work published by an overworked journal editor"

Check it out!

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Journal Article A Black sensibility for intersectional scholarship by Meshell L Sturgis Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 292–293, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaf043 Published: 26 December 2025 Abstract Most advice on how to write critical theory tends to focus on the logistics. Taking the perspective that writing is a skill rather than a talent, such approaches tend to overlook the presence and consequences of emotions in writing. Intersectional scholarship entails navigating and cultivating relations, rituals, and evolving emotional states from the most private to the more generalizable. This essay documents just some of the feelings experienced by one queer Black woman who studies race and communication in the United States. It begins with Black feminist theorizing about writing, research, and the embodiment of intersectional harm. Then, it captures discrete writing experiences and some of the emotions paired with such experiences over the course of the author’s writing career. Finally, it ends with a poetic reveal of writing habits to distill some of the sensory inputs and emotional underpinnings of a Black feminist writing praxis.

Up next in our forum "Dismantling the Master's House," featuring essays exploring new directions for peer review of intersectional scholarship, we have Meshell L. Sturgis.

"A Black sensibility for intersectional scholarship"

Check it out!

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Journal Article Grounded under a Blue Sky: tools for disrupting the peer review process as we know it Purchased by Meredith D Clark Communication, Culture and Critique, Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 290–291, https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcaf051 Published: 26 December 2025 Abstract This article provides an introduction to a scholarly forum on intersectional approaches to challenging the peer-review process. Developed out of a Blue Sky session at the International Communication Association’s annual conference in 2025, the article and the forum discuss ways to build out of the strength of differences with practical insights that can be adopted throughout the publication process to advance critical scholarship.

Check out our latest forum, "Dismantling the Master's House" featuring essays exploring new directions for peer review of intersectional scholarship.

It kicks off with an introductory essay from Meredith D. Clark, "Grounded Under a Blue Sky." A must read!

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Eroding the market’s hidden hand: toward a Post-Capitalist media system Abstract. Media-related problems facing democratic societies around the world today often stem from various kinds of market failures and structural limitat

Check out @victorpickard.bsky.social's contribution to our forum on Left Democratic Futures, on the urgent need for post-capitalist media in a world where corporate media and big tech have clearly and spectacularly failed us.

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Solidarity in action: building worker-owned intersectional platforms in Latin America Abstract. The project Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP) (Grohmann et al., 2025) brought together six organizations from Brazil and Argentina in

Check out @grohmannrafael.bsky.social's contribution to our forum on "Democratic Left Futures" for real world examples of "solidarity in action" against the dystopia of big tech fascism!

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Meeting the moment with José Aricó and “Neither Cynicism nor Utopia”1: Editor’s note We are featuring two urgent Forums in our final issue of our first volume of CCC. The first Forum on “Left Democratic Futures” is inspired by José Aricó, a

See here for an introductory essay and link to the Aricó!

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It is impossible to reorient the operation of a society’s economic life in an anticapitalist path without a decisive presence from the state. Yet the ever-growing presence of the state in society causes a progressive stifling of democratic spaces. This is the dilemma that was posed at that time and it is the dilemma that frames the processes of change today. To put it bluntly: bread and democracy seem to be mutually exclusive concepts; all that is left is to opt for one or the other. During these long years, the Latin American left – and not only the Latin American left, of course – justified “real” socialism on the basis of the admission that it had been able to solve the same persistent issues affecting the people of Latin America. According to it, those who, also from the left, insisted on speaking about democracy did so with the narrow-minded goal of denying the conquests achieved by socialism – in the end, who cared about those miserable bourgeois freedoms, like reading the newspaper of one's choice, compared to the countless benefits that socialism gave to humanity!

Today, this terrible quid pro quo has blown up. Because it is not true that socialism assures the historical necessities of men and women by amputating their fundamental freedoms. In the long run, this amputation hampers the fulfilment of historical necessities. Today, the crisis of socialism is showing us that it is impossible to draw a dividing line between bread and democracy, because, in doing so, socialism itself disappears. In increasingly complex modern societies, it seems as though socialism cannot make headway based on an enlightened confidence in the abilities of reason to create progress, but rather the opposite, on questioning, to the fullest, its neocapitalist recuperation. It is only by questioning the harmoniousness of socialist models that we can admit social conflictiveness and political interaction as irrepressible phenomena of all future – and therefore present – societies. Socialism resets recompone the dialecticity of its relationship with democracy by incorporating pluralism (political, organisational, ideological, cultural, etc.) as its own irrepressible value; but in doing so, it radically questions all concrete socialist experiences.

Socialists have no practical solutions, nor Marxists theoretical answers, to all these issues. But I wonder: Does anyone have them, or did anyone ever have them? Is capitalism an answer? Are we not witnessing the fall of the ideological paradigms on which bourgeois societies were constructed? Are we not beginning to accept the idea of the un-governability of such societies? At the same time, does the firm questioning of current socialist experiences mean we are negating the gains in the growth and redistribution of resources? Put another way, does it mean we must renounce any programmatic and society-centered reconstruction project of society? Is there a third way that would allow us to escape capitalism to construct a more egalitarian – but also infinitely freer and more democratic – society? This is where, I think, the debate turns into a vicious circle and shows itself completely incapable of moving forward in novel paths. It is here, too, that we are unable to prevent ourselves from either dashing for utopia or accepting cynically the state of things. It is here where, in total good faith but with maximum critical faculty, we must learn to measure ourselves against the facts.

In light of the Trump administration's renewed imperialism in Latin America, it's worth revisiting the insights of José Aricó.

In our latest forum on "Left Democratic Futures," we include a republication of his 1980 essay “Neither Cynicism nor Utopia.”

The interview is part of our Forum on Left Democratic Futures. See the other contributions here:

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Protestors in a city park holding signs reading "JIN JIYAH AZADI" and "FEMINISTS FOR JINA" and "From Iran to Palestine, End the War, End the Crime" among other slogans.

OPEN ACCESS!

In our latest issue, @manijehm.bsky.social interviews Iranian left feminist activist Neda Naji on resisting authoritarianism and imperialism.

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Eroding the market’s hidden hand: toward a Post-Capitalist media system Abstract. Media-related problems facing democratic societies around the world today often stem from various kinds of market failures and structural limitat

In his recent essay for @ccc-journal.bsky.social, @victorpickard.bsky.social analyzes the capitalist logics at the root of many media-related issues and provides a framework for shifting to a less capitalist, more democratic media system.

Read here: buff.ly/AYvibor

Here's a link to the full call with submission instructions!

academic.oup.com/ccc/pages/jo...

Call for Papers Journalism in Ruins: Interrogating norms of ‘independent’ journalism Thematic Issue for Communication, Culture & Critique (2026/27) Abstract Deadline (500 words): December 15, 2025 Complete Manuscript Deadline (7,000-8,000 words): June 15, 2026 Co-editors: Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, University of London), Srirupa Roy (University of Göttingen)

Rationale This thematic issue critically interrogates the normative ideal of an independent journalism that drives contemporary laments for a “journalism in ruins.” Normative liberal understandings of news have often declared independent news production as the holy grail of media freedom. A free media is in turn associated with a healthy democracy. Independence of news organizations from government pressure or interference in news production is considered vital to democracy’s well-being. Independence of journalism from wealthy sponsors or corporate pressures is seen as key to its integrity. In turn, independent news media are hailed as the ultimate democratic horizon (Fenton, 2025). An entrenched belief of Anglo/Western liberal media systems, the norm of ‘independent journalism’ also exerts a powerful influence across much of the postcolonial South (Mustvairo et al., 2021). Yet, the mythology of a ‘free’ news media sustaining ‘liberal’ democracy has long since been exposed as exhausted at best, and as absolving of truths at worst. Corruption and compromise have come to the fore as political and commercial interests merge and expand. It is now beyond doubt that a media and tech system that may have many platforms and points of distribution but is dominated by a few, powerful voices and a news media increasingly run to secure financial reward or political influence is highly unlikely to foster greater democratic participation in political culture (Pickard, 2019). Indeed, journalism is arguably now more often subject to fear and favor than without it despite claims to the contrary. As liberal democracy flounders, as legal frameworks fail to deliver journalistic protections, as free expression becomes the preserve of the powerful, as good governance gives way to commercialism at all costs and mechanisms of accountability seek to preserve privilege rather than uphold standards, then the ideal of independent journalism flails too. So why do many scholars and journalist…

These concerns are even more pertinent as mainstream news organizations around the world face multiple challenges from both state and commercial forces, resulting in their closure and constriction and as attacks on journalists increase. As calls of fake news, mis/disinformation abound, so public trust in journalism has plummeted in many places. Yet in the face of such existential challenges, the mainstream journalistic vanguard reaches once more for a return to ‘core values’ aligned with liberalism’s promises to expose the truth with little regard for the systemic forces (of commercialism, marketisation, elite capture, and political entanglement) that have evaded such truth-making claims from being realized. As journalism retreats to its safe default space of hegemonic values and claimed conformity of standards such as ‘objectivity’, ‘impartiality’ and ‘independence’ so it fails to acknowledge the structures and practices that ensure these spaces are too often distorted by money, power and privilege and hence are also heavily classed, gendered and racialized. How has this ‘high modernism’ (Hallin, 2006) of journalism managed to prevail and largely ignore critiques of power relations and geopolitical context and what does it mean for a journalism in ruins? This Thematic Issue seeks to interrogate these concerns: Crucially, it asks, what if the pilgrimage for journalistic independence is treading the wrong path, directing us away from interrogating power relations that exist and blinkering our visions of what journalism could become? If news and journalism are always situated in relation to and interact with other organizations, institutions, professions and people, would we be better placed to interrogate the relations of power therein and establish the levels of interdependence that exist in order to determine how these interdependencies can be recognized, better understood and managed? How can journalism studies move beyond liberal conceptions of the public sphere…

Critical journalism studies folks!

We're looking for contributors to a new special issue: "Journalism in Ruins: Interrogating norms of ‘independent’ journalism." Editors: Natalie Fenton and Srirupa Roy.

Abstracts due Dec. 15, 2025.

Abolitionist sanctuary under Trump 2.0 Abstract. This article examines the importance of sanctuary movements under rising fascism in the US under the second presidential administration of Donald

As part of our forum on Media & Fascism, @naomipaik.bsky.social explores the vital role of sanctuary movements in resisting Trump's authoritarianism. Check it out!

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Kamala is for they/them: liberalism, fascism, and nonsense Abstract. The slogan that the Trump campaign used in the 2024 US presidential election to tie rival Kamala Harris to trans activists in its television ads—

Awesome! You may also be interested in this piece too, from the same forum (and open access): doi.org/10.1093/ccc/...

Transing Trump’s moral crusade against transgender people Abstract. The beginning of Trump’s second presidency finds us immersed in a moral crusade with the expressed intent of complete annihilation of transness f

As part of our forum on Media & Fascism, @lorelemaster.bsky.social and @marykathinks.bsky.social unpack Trump's moral crusade against trans people. Check it out!

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“With friends like this, who needs enemies?”: on the global rise of Christian Zionism Abstract. This article argues for greater media and critical emphasis on Christian Zionism, a deeply antisemitic and Islamophobic ideology, whose supporter

As part of our forum on Media & Fascism, Gil Hochberg argues for greater critical focus on the global rise of Christian Zionism. Check it out!

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The roots of reactionary tech oligarchy and the need for radical democratic alternatives Abstract. The aim for this commentary is two-fold: first, we seek to outline how decades of liberal “post-democratic” hegemony—prevalent across liberal dem

As part of this month's forum on Media & Fascism, @jfarkas.bsky.social and @aurelmondon.bsky.social explore the rise of reactionary tech oligarchy and why liberalism, journalism, and the Internet aren't the bulwarks they might seem. Check it out!

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More than money and algorithms: the cultural roots of Trump’s alt-media strategy Abstract. This article examines Trump’s masculinist “alt-media strategy” in the 2024 election to explore the right’s dominance in the online media landscap

As part of this month's forum on Media & Fascism, @reecepeck.bsky.social explores Trump's alt-media strategy and shows why we need more historically engaged analyses of political communication strategy and tactics. Check it out!

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Media reconstruction and reparative media Abstract. Drawing from the work of scholar-activist W.E.B. Du Bois and insights from co-creating a community-based media platform, this article demonstrate

As part of this month's forum on Media & Fascism, @ajescoffery.bsky.social explores how experimental, community-based media practices can help us revitalize and reconstruct democracy. Check it out!

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Mis/Disinformation Studies folks!

This is an excellent meditation on the political limitations of debunking and on how we might respond otherwise. Even if you're not a queer/trans studies person, this piece is well worth the read!

Kamala is for they/them: liberalism, fascism, and nonsense Abstract. The slogan that the Trump campaign used in the 2024 US presidential election to tie rival Kamala Harris to trans activists in its television ads—

🚨OPEN ACCESS🚨

As part of our new forum on "Media and Fascism," @cassiusa.bsky.social writes about how trans cultural production might best answer the ascendant fascist aesthetics of nonsense and sensation.

There's no paywall, check it out!

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Cruel capitalism: a forum on media and fascism Abstract. This article introduces a forum on “Media and Fascism” by reading tech oligarch and right-wing political operative Elon Musk as a nexus of intern

Our June issue is now live! It kicks off with a forum on Media and Fascism, featuring a star-studded list of contributors.

Get started with this introduction by forum editors @paulachak.bsky.social and @ajbauer.bsky.social!

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Cruel capitalism: a forum on media and fascism Abstract. This article introduces a forum on “Media and Fascism” by reading tech oligarch and right-wing political operative Elon Musk as a nexus of intern

Check out CCC’s latest forum on “Cruel Capitalism: Media and Fascism” co-edited with @ajbauer.bsky.social in
@ccc-journal.bsky.social!
Essays on trans culture, the central role of Christian Zionism, masculinity and alt media, reparative and abolitionist futures, and more!

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Must read from colleagues in the latest issue of Communication, Culture and Critique.

This was so fun to write! Using Du Bois and reconstruction to talk about how media could help us survive authoritarianism.

Cruel Capitalism: a forum on media and fascism by AJ Bauer and Paula Chakravartty in Communication, Culture and Critique: This article introduces a forum on "media and fascism" by reading tech oligarch and right-wing political operative Elon Musk as a nexus of international fascist tendencies. It notes contradictions in the affective promises of capitalism vis a vis the elimination of racialized and gendered state regulatory and social welfare functions and describes the role of violent repression in sustaining right-authoritarian political formations in the US and around the globe.

Check out my latest, with @paulachak.bsky.social, in @ccc-journal.bsky.social!

It introduces a forum we co-edited on "Media and Fascism," with a star-studded lineup! See the 🧵 below:

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