Revue Communication & professionnalisation

Communication & Professionalization aims to present work that addresses changes in communication professions, in light of the extensive use of digital platforms in professional practices and organisational transitions. This phenomenon, known as ‘Platformization’ (Casilli & Posada, 2019; Gillespie, 2010) can be defined as a significant technical (Helmond, 2015) and organisational process within the digital economy that seeks to facilitate the match between supply, which involves a multitude of options, and demand, which involves individualised practices (Benghozi & Paris, 2016). One of the side effects of this platformization is to facilitate, or even force, new forms of collaboration (Mabi & Zacklad, 2021). The major platform companies at the forefront of this digital mediation economy, the GAFAMs, encompass multiple industries (entertainment, knowledge, advertising, crowdworking, hardware, etc.) and provide information and communication services (storage, syncing, outsourcing, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, artificial intelligence, metaverse, etc.) that are now essential for organisational operations.

Against this background, both traditional and emerging communication professions are undergoing constant change, requiring professionals (Cheney & Lee Ashcraft, 2007)to acquire new skills and competencies (Alloing et al., 2021; Bouillon, 2015; Deighton, 2017; Kondratov, 2018; Venkatasawmy, 2018). In the cultural industries (Nieborg & Poell, 2018), where several of these communication professions are located, new phenomena of deprofessionalisation and re-professionalisation are emerging. Platforms impose a set of production and consumption logics that are perceived and managed differently depending on the level of economic dependence of professional users (Schor & Attwood-Charles, 2017). Thus, communicators can simultaneously feel subjugated to algorithmic management when their work is subjected to the evaluation regime of these platforms (Bucher et al., 2020), while at the same time deriving a sense of fulfilment when the functionalities of these platforms support their work. In both cases, new configurations of communication professions emerge, leading to complex processes of transformation (Baillargeon, 2019; Coutant & Domenget, 2015). If, as Bullich (Bullich, 2021) points out, platforms are “manifestations of the organisational logic of mediatised communication” (p. 49), we must now question their functionalities, particularly for those whose work involves producing content for these platforms (social media[1]) or benefiting from them (marketplaces for skills and content[2]).

The journal has already published several papers on this topic, including the work of Domenget & Sire (2016), which focuses on SEOs and highlights the need for constant renewal of skills in response to the changes brought about by Google, as demonstrated by Peirot and Roginsky’s (2019) study and Alloing’s (2022) study on measurement and evaluation. Similar arrangements can be observed among managers of online communities (Alloing & Pierre, 2019), where professional skills are evaluated on the basis of metrics derived from publications. Several years later, do platforms stabilise the required skills, or is there still a need for continuous adaptation? Are new professions emerging alongside content moderators (Leveneur & Pélissier, 2020), as suggested by Larroche (Larroche, 2015)? And with them, “atypical careers” (Baillargeon & Coutant, 2018) and “hybrid skills” (Anciaux et al., 2018)? How do discourses of support (Grignon, 2015) contribute to operability, especially when they are addressed to professionals? To what extent do they shape the careers, skills and everyday practices of those who work (or aspire to work) for and through platforms? Do communicators also adopt an ethical code when supporting their clients in the media or when engaging their subscribers in their work (Coutant et al., 2021)? Have current training offerings successfully bridged the gap between procedural knowledge and critical approaches (Alemanno, 2015; Morillon et al., 2020)? Can the question of the digital transformation of organisations, where communicators and other professionals are largely dependent on platform services (Meese & Hurcombe, 2021), be conceived exclusively through the lens of collaborative innovation, as explored by Zacklad (Zacklad, 2020)?

These are just some of the questions that Communication & Professionalization aims to address, focusing particularly on the impact of digital platforms on the practices of communication professionals and vice versa. Has the influence of digital platforms on digital communication, which has already been widely discussed in these publications, further exacerbated the described tensions? Does platformization impact the communication profession as a whole, beyond just digital communications professionals, including roles such as press relations and internal communications? Furthermore, platformization can be examined in terms of its effects on workers’ bodies and personal lives, from the psychosocial risks associated with hyperconnectivity and constant accessibility (Carayol, 2019) to burnout , which can lead to resistance and individual and collective strategies to effect change (El Bourkadi, 2022).