Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article offers a new conceptual model of disinformation which accounts for the performative status of disinformation accusations, and the dialogistic interaction between accusers and accused, within a multi-aspectual dynamic process involving diverse actors (including those disassociated from various forms of deceit). The model shows how claims acquire or lose their disinformation status, as they transgress temporal, geopolitical, and linguacultural boundaries, those of media genre and platform, as well as, crucially, the boundary separating primary (disinformation) from secondary (counter-disinformation) discourses. We call our model “the lifecycle of disinformation,” as it captures both disinformation’s linear trajectories, and its capacity for constant self-renewal. While eschewing relativism, the article challenges the understanding of disinformation as referentially stable, demonstrably false content which still frames much disinformation research and underpins the working principles of counter-disinformation units (CDUs). To reconceive disinformation according to this model, we develop a 5-step analytical apparatus applicable in future research.
Source: Communication Theory
DOI: 10.1093/ct/qtaf009
Institutions: University of Manchester, Aarhus University, Panteion University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,235
OpenAlex ID: W4410792589