The Routledge Handbook of Discourse and Disinformation

This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of research into discourses of disinformation, misinformation, post-truth, alternative facts, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and "fake news".

Divided into two sections, it provides a detailed look at the methodological challenges and approaches for studying disinformation, along with a wide range of case studies covering everything from climate change denial to COVID-19 conspiracies. The studies address how discourses of disinformation are constructed and developed, what rhetorical and persuasive strategies they employ, how disinformation can be discerned from real news, and what steps we might take in order to create a more trustworthy news environment.

Authored by leading experts from around the world, and showcasing the most up-to-date methodological approaches to the topic, the volume makes a significant contribution to current linguistic research on politics, and is an essential guide to the discourses of disinformation for advanced students and researchers of English language studies, linguistics, and media and communication studies.

Stefania M. Maci is Full Professor of English Language at the University of Bergamo, where she is the coordinator of the MA in Digital Humanities and Director of the Research Centre on Specialised Language. Her research is focussed on the study of the English language in academic and professional contexts.

Massimiliano Demata is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Turin. He has published monographs, papers, and book chapters on British and US political discourse, nationalism and discourse, populism, computer-mediated communication, and climate change refugees.

Mark McGlashan is Senior Lecturer in English Language at the Birmingham Institute of Media and English, Birmingham City University. Mark’s research interests predominantly centre on the synthesis and application of methods from corpus linguistics and (critical) discourse studies to study a wide range of social issues, and his recent work has focussed on relationships between language and abuse. Mark is co-editor (with Professor John Mercer) of Toxic Masculinity: Men, Meaning and Digital Media (Routledge, 2023).

Philip Seargeant is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the Open University, where he teaches and researches language and communication with a political focus on political discourse. His recent books include The Art of Political Storytelling, Political Activism in the Linguistic Landscape, and Crisis Leadership: Boris Johnson and Political Persuasion during the Covid Pandemic.