manipexcepttimes-maillatoswald-authoracceptedmanuscript_0
Public access from
22/01/2026
Book chapter

Manipulation in exceptional times : Exploiting overwhelming contextual parameters for manipulative purposes

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  • 2024
Published in:
  • Cornelia Ilie (Ed.): Manufacturing Dissent. - John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 2024, p. 62-84
English This chapter offers a cognitively-grounded account of manipulative strategies speakers may use to challenge and discredit scientific discourse in times of crisis, in which the perceived reliability of scientific communication is vulnerable. Specifically, we explore how such an overwhelming context is ideally suited for manipulative attempts to spread misinformation. We illustrate our account by analysing two strategies: one by which political authorities attempted to discredit scientific expertise, and one by which minority experts tried to weaken mainstream scientific expertise. In so doing, we provide a principled account of the way manipulation targeting expert voices in public discourse can affect an audience’s epistemic vigilance mechanisms, while offering insights into the role overwhelming contexts can play in bringing about these manipulative effects.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département d'anglais
Language
  • English
Classification
Language, linguistics
License
License undefined
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/330800
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