Language and Communicative Aspects of Disinformation

Disinformation is commonly discussed through a set of dominant narratives, such as the claim that we live in a post-factual era, that we are witnessing an unprecedented boom of disinformation and conspiracy theories, that disinformation is the main driver of societal polarization, or that language itself is losing its meanings. Regardless of the empirical validity of these narratives, disinformation and conspiracy theories have become a central topic across many scientific disciplines.

The project Language and Communicative Aspects of Disinformation approaches disinformation not primarily as a cause of social problems, but as a symptom of deeper and more complex transformations in social relations and public communication. From this perspective, disinformation is understood as a specific form of strategic communicative action. It involves not only the production of messages and narratives, but also the conditions under which they are interpreted and misinterpreted by audiences.

As participants in public discourse, we observe that the communicative practices of certain media, political actors, and influencers are not accidental. Their effectiveness lies in the deliberate creation of communicative conditions that facilitate distorted interpretation and misunderstanding. Analyzing the linguistic and communicative principles underlying such practices is therefore essential for understanding the success of disinformation in public discourse.

An equally important dimension of the problem concerns ways of counteracting the effects of disinformation. This includes strategic communication at the level of state–citizen relations, as well as communicative practices in interindividual and community contexts.

The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars from diverse disciplines to discuss disinformation as a communicative phenomenon: how it is implemented in public discourse, what forms of knowledge, belief, or irrationality it reflects, how it contributes to the persistence of social conflicts between different social groups, and how its impact can be mitigated through more effective communication strategies.

Thematic focus of contributions

• Theoretical and methodological aspects of disinformation research (from the perspective of various scientific disciplines – philosophy, logic, law, history, political science, sociology, ethnology, social psychology, linguistics, semiotics, etc.)
• Linguistic analysis of disinformation messages (morphosyntactic, lexical, stylistic, textual aspects, etc.)
• Communicative-pragmatic aspects of disinformation (communicative acts, principles and rules of communication, relational aspects of communication, interpretive competence, etc.)
• Corpus research of disinformation texts
• Critical analysis of disinformation discourses
• Research focused on unfounded beliefs, conspiracy theories, information operations from a historical and contemporary perspective
• Research focused on strategic communication

Conference languages: English, Slovak/Czech (however, we recommend English language for shared materials – presentations etc.)

A selection of conference papers will be published in a special issue of the Jazykovedný časopis/Linguistic Journal (SCOPUS).

For more information, please visit the conference website: https://www.juls.savba.sk/disinfo.html