Politics Without Borders in Hybrid Media Systems: Communication, Personalization, Networks, and Politainment

Contemporary politics is increasingly shaped by communication dynamics, platformization, algorithmic logics, and the growing personalization of political interaction. Political actors, media organizations, influencers, and citizens now operate within hybrid communicative ecosystems in which information, entertainment, and identity performance are constantly intertwined.This Research Topic aims to explore the transformations of political communication through the perspectives of personalization, communicative networks, and politainment, analyzing how these dynamics redefine leadership, democratic participation, political visibility, and consensus-building. The Topic welcomes interdisciplinary contributions from political science, media studies, communication studies, digital sociology, computational social science, and related fields.The increasing convergence between political information, entertainment logics, and platform-driven communication requires renewed theoretical and empirical attention. This collection seeks to advance understanding of how personalization and networked communication reshape political visibility, legitimacy, and democratic participation in contemporary media environments.We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:• personalization of politics and leadership• political influencers and creator cultures• networked political communication on social media• algorithmic amplification and visibility• politainment and entertainment-driven political engagement• emotional and affective communication in politics• memes, humor, and irony in political discourse• political branding and self-presentation strategies• hybrid media systems and platform governance• digital populism and personalized campaigning• audience fragmentation and echo chambers• AI-generated political communication• comparative perspectives on political communication ecosystems • computational and network analysis of political interactions• visual political communication and short-video platforms• disinformation, virality, and participatory cultures.We welcome methodologically diverse contributions, including quantitative and qualitative studies, computational methods and social network analysis, digital ethnography, comparative and cross-national research, experimental designs, and mixed-methods approaches. Topic editors: Laura Cervi, Daniele Battista Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82725/politics-without-borders-in-hybrid-media-systems-communication-personalization-networks-and-politainment