Recherches en Communication

Untangling the Knots between Disinformation and Inequalities

Geoffroy Patriarche — 2026-06-26

Media and communication research has an ongoing interest in how different kinds of inequalities shape, and are shaped by, the production, the circulation, the reception and the effects of news and other kinds of information. This special issue of Recherches en communication aims to develop such lines of enquiry within the field of disinformation research. Inequalities are only partially or marginally addressed in academic research and public discourse on disinformation. In this special issue, we examine how disinformation shapes inequalities and vice versa.

‘Rules Were Followed, Allegations Are False’

Alexandra Colombier Vanjiaka — 2026-06-26

In February 2025, Thailand deported 40 Uyghur detainees to China under the cover of darkness, amid contradictory official statements, delayed disclosures, and staged displays of transparency. This article introduces the concept of a spiral of informational opacity to capture how competing narratives, selective visibility, and asymmetrical power relations erode the conditions of knowledge in multi-actor information environments, rendering verification structurally impossible. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the article identifies three mechanisms: cumulative sedimentation, mutual delegitimization, and structural instrumentalization. It contributes to disinformation studies by shifting attention from false content to conditions of verifiability, and to migration studies by conceptualizing deportation as epistemic exclusion.

Media Representations of Voiceless Migrants

Igor Kanižaj — 2026-06-26

The rapid increase in the number of migrant workers in Croatia, mainly from India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, has led to significant media attention, affecting public perceptions of migration and labour (Butković et al., 2022). However, this topic remains underexplored, raising concerns about stereotyping and misinformation that reinforce inequalities (Blanco-Herrero et al., 2024; Nieminen, 2024). Based on the concept of representation (Hall, 1997), this study examines how three Croatian news portals with the largest number of real users, according to Gemius (i.e. Jutarnji.hr, 24sata.hr, and Večernji.hr), represent migrant labour and whether their narratives contribute to misrepresentation and misinformation about migrants. The findings of the quantitative content analysis of 132 articles published in 2025, supplemented by a close qualitative analysis of selected articles, point to repetitive frames, recurring thematic structures, and an underrepresentation of migrants as sources. Special attention is given to how migrant labour is portrayed through editorial practices. Overall, the study shows that Croatian news media portals predominantly exacerbate misrepresentation and misinformation about migrants, thereby reinforcing structural inequalities.

Disinformation by Omission

Jaigris Hodson — 2026-06-26

As one of the world’s most popular podcasts and boasting a larger audience than mainstream media outlets like CNN (Bozzi, 2025; Mwachiro, 2025), discourses of trans-critical disinformation that are shared on the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast matter greatly. This paper employs corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis (Baker, 2020; Hodson & Lefevre, 2022) to understand discourses related to trans individuals on the JRE podcast, and the ways they may threaten the safety and security of trans people. Using the framework of communicative capitalism (Dean, 2014), the role of precarious masculinity (DiMuccio & Knowles, 2021) in creating an audience for trans-critical disinformation is considered. The results of this study suggest that more needs to be done to raise awareness of and counter the one-sided politicization and dehumanization of trans bodies as expressed by Rogan and most of his podcasts guests.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Chris Hesselbein — 2026-06-26

This article builds on recent agnostic and ethnographic approaches to conspiracy theories in an attempt, first, to think through their relation not only to mis-, dis-, and malinformation but also to social inequality, and, second, to establish conspiracy theories as a potentially valuable form of social critique in pluralist democracies. I outline three ways in which conspiracy theorising can be of value to the production of knowledge, to participation in society, and to research in the social sciences and humanities. These can aid in understanding and addressing inequalities, because they unpack conspiracy theories as not only a cause but also a symptom of power inequality, and can even be seen as a form of resistance to inequality.

Trans Activism Against Disinformation on Social Media

Adolfo Carratalá — 2026-06-26

This article examines how three trans organizations in Spain – Plataforma Trans, Euforia. Familias Trans-Aliadas, and Chrysallis – addressed disinformation and hate speech on Instagram during 2023. Through a content analysis of 383 posts, the study identifies predominant themes, the framing of hostile narratives, and the communicative strategies deployed in response. Findings reveal that organizations perceive disinformation and hate speech as a unified field of hostility, prioritizing the defense of human rights over systematic fact-checking. The results suggest that the limited use of explicit verification is not a deficiency but a strategic adaptation: organizations prioritize confrontation, pedagogy, and community support to challenge what they frame as the “epistemic violence” of disinformation. By highlighting how digital activism constructs counter-narratives that empower the trans community and mobilize allies, the article engages with broader debates on the tension between activist logics and journalistic verification norms.